DK Travel : Tuscany

Limiting the choice of prime sights is not an easy task in a land as rich and varied as Tuscany. Its storybook landscape is home to medieval hill towns, fabled wines and, as crucible of the Renaissance, an unrivalled collection of artistic masterpieces. Here are the best of the best.

Pienza’s Piazza Pio II

Perfectly planned Renaissance town centre (see Pienza).
Piero della Francesca (1416–92)

A visionary early Renaissance master whose paintings have an ethereal spirituality, his well-modelled figures endowed with great humanity. His complex compositions also show his early mastery of perspective.
Pinacoteca Nazionale

The Pinacoteca boasts a comprehensive collection of Sienese painting (though the masterpieces of the school are housed elsewhere). Among the earlier gems, seek out various 14th-century Madonnas by Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti. Compare Beccafumi’s cartoons (full-sized preparatory sketches on cartone , or “large paper”) for the Duomo’s floor panels and his Mannerist Christ Descending into Limbo to rival Sodoma’s High Renaissance works.
Pinocchio Park, Collodi

The hometown of Pinocchio author Carlo “Collodi” Lorenzini has a small theme park.
Pinturicchio (1454–1513)

Added Tuscan humanism to Umbrian Renaissance style.
Pisa

Tuscany’s favourite daytrip offers more than just a leaning tower. The gorgeous collection of Romanesque buildings called the “Field of Miracles” ranks among Tuscany’s Top 10 sights (see Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa).
Pisa and Lucca in a Day

Morning

Start your day on the “Field of Miracles” in Pisa (see Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa). Admire the Pisano pulpits in the Duomo (see Duomo Pulpit) and the perfect acoustics of the Baptistry. You can compare the artist’s original sketches with reproductions of the finished frescoes at Museo delle Sinopie. Enjoy the cathedral’s treasures at Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, where charts show how the Campo buildings form various perfect geometries.

Grab a bus or taxi to Pisa’s great oft-missed sight, the excellent painting collection of Museo San Matteo. Stroll back along the Arno to the Ponte di Mezzo, turn right up Borgo Stretto then left into the colourful Vettovaglie Market, where you will find Trattoria Sant’ Omobono .

Afternoon

Catch a train or drive to Lucca , where your first stop is the Duomo (see Lucca’s Duomo). Then climb Torre Guinigi for the panoramas.

Walk through Piazza Anfiteatro and under the glittering façade of San Frediano to see its Miracles of San Frediano frescoes and the shunken body of St Zita, patron saint of maids and ladies-in-waiting. Head down fashionable Via Fillungo for a spot of shopping and the impressive San Michele in Foro.

Finally, climb onto the city walls. If you are staying the night in Lucca, rent a bicycle to return tomorrow (the shops close at 7:30pm); if not, stroll the walls on foot.
Pisa’s Duomo

Beside the Pisan-Romanesque exterior, only a few elements, such as Cimabue’s apse mosaic of 1302, survived a 1595 fire. However, the late Renaissance/early Baroque refurbishment was stylish, and local legend holds the swinging of the nave’s large bronze lamp inspired Galileo’s Law of Pendulums. (see San Gimignano)
Pisa’s Duomo Group

Beautiful assemblage of Pisan-Romanesque buildings using grey-and-white marble bands, blind arcades, and stacked loggias (see Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa).
Pisa’s Gioco del Ponte

Pisan residents from either side of the Arno have always been rivals, and they fight it out by dressing in Renaissance costume and staging an inverse tug-of-war on the city’s oldest bridge, competing to push a giant, leaden cart over the bridge to the other team’s side.