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Siena may have grown to small city size, but it retains a homey, hill-town atmosphere. Its travertine-accented brick palaces, stone towers and fabulously decorated churches are strung along three high ridges at the south end of the Chianti hills. (see Siena’s Duomo)

A striped Romanesque-Gothic pile, richly decorated by the likes of Giovanni Pisano, Donatello, Pinturicchio, Michelangelo, Beccafumi and Bernini.

Martini took a medieval eye for narrative and iconography and married it to a vibrant Gothic palette, richly patterned fabrics and intense drama in his courtly, graceful figures.

Sorano is an ancient Etruscan hill town literally slipping off its rocky outcrop. The restored 13th-century Aldobrandeschi fortress (expanded by the Orisini in 1552), is now partly medieval museum and partly hotel (see Banking and Communications). The 18th-century Massa Leopoldino fortress is also open to visitors.

This modest hamlet was once an Etruscan city, Roman Municipium , and birthplace of 11th-century Aldobrandeschi Pope Gregory “Hildebrand” VII, who reigned for 60 years. On the main square are a medieval Palazzo Pretorio and Santa Maria church, which contains 15th-century frescoes and a rare 9th-century altar canopy. The Duomo on the edge of town preserves carvings from the Dark Ages. The surrounding hills and valley are littered with signposted Etruscan tombs, altars and vie cave (see The Southern Coast and Maremma); the best is the Tomba Ildebranda.

A vineyard since 804, Capezzana single-handedly created the Carmignano DOC by adding 15 percent Cabernet to the otherwise Sangiovese mix. They also make a rosé version called Vin Ruspo. Book ahead for tastings.

Brunelleschi’s ingenious double-shell dome revived the genius of ancient builders to kick-start Renaissance architecture (see The Duomo Group, Florence).

Florence’s religious heart: Giotto’s lithe belltower, the Baptistry’s Gates of Paradise and Byzantine mosaics, and the Duomo museum’s Michelangelo and Donatello sculptures – all lorded over by Brunelleschi’s dome, a miracle of Renaissance engineering and architecture.

Aspiring to the grace of Michelangelo, Tintoretto worked with a more sombre palette than that used by Titian.

Greatest Venetian painter. Paintings such as his Venus of Urbino hang in the Uffizi (see Venus of Urbino).