Tuscany History
Tuscany, or Toscana, lies in central Italy, midway down the peninsula, with miles of coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Rolling hills, snow-covered mountains, and dramatic cypress trees provide breathtaking views seemingly whichever way you look. The Arno, perhaps the most famous river in Tuscany, stretches clear across the region, passing through Florence before making its way to the sea just outside of Pisa.
The beauty of the Tuscan landscape proves a perfect foil to the abundance of superlative art and architecture found here. That same Tuscan landscape also produces some of Italy's finest wines and olive oils. The combination of unforgettable art, glorious views, and eminently drinkable wines that pair beautifully with the simple food of the region makes a trip to Tuscany something beyond special.
Tuscany was populated, at least by the 7th century BC, by the Etruscans, a mysterious lot who chose to live on hills -- the better to see the approaching enemy. Some 500 years later, the Romans came, saw, and conquered; by 241 BC they had built the Aurelia, a road from Rome to Pisa that is still very much in use today.
The crumbling of the Roman Empire and subsequent invasions by marauding Lombards, Byzantines, and Holy Roman Emperors meant centuries of social turmoil. By the 12th century, the formation of city-states was occurring throughout Tuscany, in part, perhaps, because it was unclear exactly who was in charge.
The two groups vying for power in Tuscany were the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, supporters of the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively. They jostled for control of individual cities and of Tuscany as a whole. Florence was more or less Guelph, and Siena, more often than not, was Ghibelline. This led to some bloody battles, notably the battle of Monteaperti, in 1260, in which the Ghibellines roundly defeated the Guelphs.
Eventually -- by the 14th century -- the Guelphs became the dominant force in Tuscany. But this did not mean that the warring Tuscan cities settled down to a period of relative peace and tranquility. The age in which Dante wrote his Divine Comedy and Giotto and Piero della Francesca created their incomparable frescoes was one of internecine strife. Florence was the power to be reckoned with; she coveted Siena and conquered and reconquered it during the 15th and 16th centuries. Finally, in 1555, Siena fell for good, and in rapid succession Pisa, Prato, Volterra, and Arezzo succumbed as well. They were all united under Florence to form the grand duchy of Tuscany. The only city to escape Florence's dominion was Lucca, which remained fiercely independent until the arrival of Napoléon. Eventually, however, even Florence's influence waned, and the 17th and 18th centuries saw the decline of the entire region as various armies swept across it.
Thanks to its role as the crucible of Italian culture, Florence, became united Italy's first capital in 1860, only to be supplanted by Rome in 1870. Unification did little to restore Tuscany's economic or cultural pre-eminence. Mezzadria agriculture (a kind of feudal sharecropping system) remained in place in the countryside through the Second World War. Local residents still tell stories of the Allies' arrival in 1944. After the war, Italy was caught up in the so-called 'economic miracle' that turned a predominantly agricultural society into an industrialized one almost overnight. People fled the countryside for jobs in the booming cities of the north.
Nowadays, Tuscany, along with Emilia-Romagna to the north and Umbria to the east, is part of what Italians call the 'pink' part of Italy for its left-wing tendencies. Although the pull of communism has dwindled in recent decades, the region's the clean-swept streets and array of available social services reflect Tuscans' commitment to traditional left-wing ideals. The far less densely populated Tuscan countryside has turned strongly towards producing high-quality agricultural products for the international market: wine and olive oil being the two most important. Tourism, of course, is another crucial source of income.
Despite centuries of upheaval, many of Tuscany's cities and towns are little changed. The buildings and street plans created in the economic boom of the 13th century still dominate the urban landscape. Civic rivalries that led to bloody battles so many centuries ago have given way to soccer rivalries. Renaissance pomp lives on in the celebration of local feast days and centuries-old traditions like the Palio in Siena or the Giostra del Saraceno (Joust of the Saracen) in Arezzo. Many present-day Tuscans look as though they might have served as models for paintings produced hundreds of years ago. In Tuscany, it is easy to imagine that the Renaissance took place within living memory.
