Tuscany, the cradle of culture

When it comes to things to see on holiday, Italy is a treasure trove. Because about half of the world’s cultu­ral heritage items are in Italy. A third of them in Tuscany. Such an accumu­la­tion of things to see in art and culture cannot be found anywhere else. In fact, in Florence during the Middle Ages the Medici inven­ted art patro­nage. As a result, the city on the Arno blosso­med into the art metro­po­lis par excel­lence. For example, here you find Michelangelo’s David and Brunelleschi’s dome (UNESCO World Heritage Site). The Floren­tine Galle­rie degli Uffizi belong to the most important art museums in the world. Lovely Siena gives you a feeling of how life was like in the Middle Ages. Undoub­tedly, Siena’s Piazza del Campo is the most beautiful square on earth. Moreo­ver, there is scien­tist Galileo Galilei, who is said to have carried out his experi­ments on gravi­ta­tion on the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Cultural things to see in Italy

Tuscany is a true explorer’s paradise for lovers of culture. Indeed, the mentio­ned world-famous spots are by no means all that Tuscany has to offer. Rather, art and history are omnipre­sent here. Especi­ally the smaller sights, which are not on everybody’s things to see list, are those which make the heart beat faster. Churches, faded frescoes, city walls and palazzi catapult visitors back in time. Here you will under­stand that history is too dynamic and exciting to be boring. When explo­ring an abando­ned Etruscan tomb in the maquis near Agritu­rismo Podere Palazzone, even the most reluc­tant one will turn into an enthu­si­ast historian.

Our tips on things to see

In 2015, a Roman amphi­theatre was found in Volterra. Nothing like it had been disco­vered in Italy for over a hundred years. In addition, the Romans left a theatre and a thermal bath in Volterra. As volun­teer archaeo­lo­gists, we took part in a small part of the more recent excava­tions there. If you want to share our enthu­si­asm for the history of Tuscany, we will be happy to give you background infor­ma­tion and tips on things to see that deserve your special atten­tion. And the fasci­na­ting thing about it: History is like fashion; every­thing is somehow déjà vu.

-   The Etruscans, Italy’s first advanced civilisation. -

The Etruscans left quite a number of things to see to Volterra and its surroun­dings. Their begin­nings date back almost 3.000 years. One of their twelve city-states was Volterra, the Tuscan town we look on from our infinity pool. Its wealth was based on the metal­lic resour­ces of the Colline Metal­li­fere, on salt produc­tion in Saline di Volterra, on the timber indus­try as well as pottery. Volterra is the only one of these twelve city-states where life today still takes place exactly where it did 3.000 years ago. Indeed, if you stroll through Volterra today, you walk over the same places as an Etruscan did back then. Maybe, that’s why the breath of antiquity is parti­cu­larly palpa­ble in Volterra.

The Etruscans are often portrayed as luxury-loving aesthe­tes. But of course, this is only part of the truth. On one hand, they loved good food, music, and jewel­lery. On the other hand, they were excel­lent sailors, well-travel­led traders, and brave soldiers. In many ways, the culture of the Etruscans is not so far from our current ideas. Men and women, for example, dined together, which was not a matter of course at the time. Indeed, the Romans conside­red this to be decadent.

Also, while the art of the Romans aimed at glori­fy­ing the Roman Empire through amazin­gly detailed repro­duc­tions of reality, for the Etruscans art was the expres­sion of a perso­nal idea. This is how the famous statue Ombra della Sera from the Etruscan Museum of Volterra or the horse statue in the logo of the Podere Palazzone are to be interpreted.

The religion of the Etruscans was a natural religion in which priests could derive predic­tions from light­ning, from the flight of birds or from the sight­ing of a liver. Surely, this tendency to believe in nature has survi­ved in Tuscany to this day and explains the deep-rooted belief in mythi­cal creatures and the paranor­mal. For instance, in some places prophe­cies are still formu­la­ted on the basis of distri­bu­tion of oil drops in a water bowl. Also, at the nearby Masso delle Fanciu­lle, accor­ding to legend, drowned maidens rise from the river. This is the place we visit on our ride outs just 2 hours from holiday home Podere Palazzone. In addition, unspe­ci­fied beings are said to be floating around in the abando­ned Casa Stregata on the outskirts of Pomarance.