© 2020. Agriturismo Bellavista
Places to visitSiena
Places to visitVolterra
SIENA
VOLTERRA
The square is located at the pivotal point where the city's three main streets branch out, the backbones of the Terzi, standing out as a unified whole of sublime harmony, the highest result of the Sienese passion for beauty, manifested early by the people even before the famous 1262 statute dedicated to urban planning and city aesthetics. This makes it one of the highest creations of medieval urban planning. The square is also famous because it hosts, twice a year, exactly on July 2 and August 16, the Palio delle Contrade. This is a unique horse race in the world in which the seventeen historic districts that make up the Tuscan city compete against each other.
The race consists of three laps around the track that surrounds the square, paved with pietra serena slabs, which is covered with a layer of tuff dust of suitable thickness, allowing the horses to run, not without spectacular slips at the curves. Among these, one of the most critical is the "San Martino curve." The race, which takes place in a wild manner and often without restraint from low blows, sometimes brutal, brings victory to only one district.
Fundamental ingredients for a "perfect Palio" are the pair formed by the horse and its jockey that each district manages to put together, always combined with an indispensable dose of luck and an ever-enthusiastic and involved crowd.
The city of Volterra and its splendid surroundings are, probably, in Tuscany, one of the most diverse and rich areas in terms of attractions. The undeniable historical tradition is combined with the beautiful nature that offers, from morphology to vegetation to fauna, a truly impressive heritage.
In Volterra, history has left its mark continuously from the Etruscan period up to the nineteenth century, with artistic and monumental evidence of great importance, which can be admired simply by walking through the streets of the historic center, but also by visiting the city museums: the Etruscan Museum, the Civic Art Gallery, the Museum of Sacred Art, the Alabaster Ecomuseum.
Alongside these monuments you can find an unspoiled landscape, a quality of life still on a human scale, and a unique artistic craftsmanship in the world: alabaster.
Places to visitFlorence
Places to visitSan Gimiganno
FLORENCE
SAN GIMIGNANO
Florence is located in a scenic position, at the center of a wide amphitheater-shaped basin at the southeastern end of the Florence-Prato-Pistoia plain, surrounded on three sides by the enchanting clay hills of Cercina, just above the Rifredi district and the Careggi hospital (to the north), the hills of Fiesole (to the northeast), Settignano (to the east), and Arcetri, Poggio Imperiale, and Bellosguardo (to the south).
The plain where the city stands is crossed by the Arno (the city itself divides its course between the upper Valdarno and the lower Valdarno) and by smaller watercourses such as the Mugnone, the Terzolle, and the Greve river.
The Florence - Prato - Pistoia metropolitan area, established by the Regional Council of Tuscany on March 29, 2000, entirely includes the provinces of Florence, Prato, and Pistoia, with a population of about 1,520,000 inhabitants. The flat areas of the metropolitan area constitute a highly urbanized environment with large industrial and commercial zones, where natural spaces are limited. The hilly areas have had an agricultural and residential vocation for centuries, with the original forests greatly reduced, especially in the areas south and east of the city. In the plain, there are non-urbanized wetlands in the area west of the city along the Arno river.
San Gimignano stands on a site that was certainly inhabited by the Etruscans, at least since the 3rd century BC. The hill was chosen for strategic reasons, as it dominates (324 m above sea level) the upper Val d'Elsa.
On the slopes of Poggio del Comune (624 m above sea level) are the ruins of Castelvecchio, a village from the Lombard era. In the Middle Ages, the city was located on one of the routes of the Via Francigena, which Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, traveled between 990 and 994 and which for him represented the 19th stage (Mansio) of his return journey from Rome to England. Sigeric called it Sce Gemiane, also noting the village as an intersection point with the road between Pisa and Siena.
According to tradition, the name derived from the holy bishop of Modena, who is said to have defended the village from Attila's occupation. The first city walls date back to 998 and included the Montestaffoli hill, where there was already a fortress that served as a market owned by the bishop of Volterra, and the Torre hill with the bishop's castle.
© 2020. Agriturismo Bellavista