Colle di Val d’Elsa
Colle di Val d’Elsa is a beautiful medieval town located in the heart of Tuscany.
Its position is strategically favorable to tourism: in less than an hour you can reach Florence and Volterra, in less than half an hour Siena, Chianti, San Gimignano, Monteriggioni and Volterra; Colle di Val d’Elsa is also located on the route of the Via Francigena, the medieval “highway” of the great pilgrimages from northern Europe to Rome, today loved by a large number of cultural trekking enthusiasts.
Moreover, Colle Val D’Elsa offers a path along the Elsa river, discovering loops and waterfalls immersed in the local flora and fauna.
Birthplace of the great architect Arnolfo di Cambio, it is divided into two distinct parts: Colle Alto which rises above a hillock, and Colle Bassa, nestled in the plains. Colle Alto retains its appearance as a medieval village, especially in the characteristic Via del Castello, flanked by beautiful buildings and medieval and Renaissance towers, including the Casa-tower of Arnolfo di Cambio, dating back to the thirteenth century.
The name of Colle Val d’Elsa is recommended, since the Middle Ages, also for the flourishing glass production and, from a century ago, crystal. The “Bohemian of Italy”, as it has been defined, offers a large offer, through shops and wholesalers, of glass and crystal objects, to satisfy every request, from the most demanding to the most attentive to the price.
Abbey of San Galgano
It is one of the most evocative and fascinating places in the whole of Tuscany, dear to writers and directors.
The famous Cistercian Abbey of San Galgano, was one of the richest and most powerful in Italy in the Middle Ages until the twelfth century. As evidence of its splendid past, today remain the magnificent ruins of the beautiful church and some rooms of the Monastery. It is an ideal destination for excursions by bike or trekking.
Siena
Siena the city of art and the Palio.
An unmissable destination for anyone who loves art history, it houses wonderful museums that bear witness to the flourishing of Sienese painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Ducci, Simone Martini, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano are represented with some of their most significant works within the many museums that the city holds.
But the visit to Siena does not necessarily require the interest of the museum visitor: just a walk through its narrow streets, a stop in the famous Piazza del Campo to experience an unforgettable aesthetic emotion.
The city, in addition to the historical and artistic beauties, attracts tourists each year from around the world for the magnificent Palio.
The Palio is not a manifestation exhumed and organized for tourism: the life of the Sienese people over time and in its various aspects and feelings. It has remote origins with some regulations still valid since 1644, the year in which the first prize with horses was run, as it still happens, in continuity never interrupted.
The race is held twice a year in the scenic Piazza del Campo – July 2 (Palio di Provenzano) and August 16 (Palio dell’Assunta). The race of the Palio consists of three laps of Piazza del Campo, on a tufa track traced in the ring above the shell.
Wins the Contrada whose horse, with or without jockey, arrives first at the end of the three laps.
Chianti
The name Chianti nowadays identifies a geographic area (mostly hilly) of central Tuscany.
Characterized by different geological, physical and climatic conditions. This area extends between the cities of Florence and Siena and is known for the famous DOCG brand “Chianti Classico” red wine. But the fame of Chianti, beyond the enogastronomic aspect, is also linked to the rare beauty of its landscape and the many villages of which it is scattered.
San Gimignano
A centuries-old down town dominates the Val d’Elsa: it is formed by the fifteen towers of San Gimignano.
The historic center has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and allows you to make an unforgettable journey through time to arrive at the glorious age of the Municipalities. Vernaccia di San Gimignano is one of the finest Italian white wines, produced since 1200 in a small area of Tuscany, it is known and appreciated all over the world and was the first Italian wine to receive the Denomination of Controlled Origin label (DOC) in 1966.
Volterra
Lonely on its hill, which sweeps over an immense view from the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The city has its own special charm that sets it apart from any other. The city of Volterra and its beautiful surroundings are probably in Tuscany, one of the most diversified and full of attractions. The indisputable historical tradition joins the beautiful nature that offers, from the morphology, to the vegetation, to the fauna, a truly impressive heritage.
Already the journey that takes place to get there is worth the trip: breathtaking landscapes, which alternate the cordiality and the softness of the typical Tuscan hill with overhangs and wounds in the rock, expanses of cultivated or flowered fields and barren and rugged areas. In Volterra history has left its mark with continuity from the Etruscan period up to the nineteenth century, with artistic and monumental testimonies of great importance, which can be admired simply walking through the streets of the historic center, but also visiting the city’s museums: the Museum Etruscan, the Civic Art Gallery, the Museum of Sacred Art, the Alabaster Ecomuseum.
Firenze
One of the most important cities of art in the world, cradle of the Renaissance, home of Dante, Giotto and Michelangelo, Florence needs no introduction: its business card is the millions of people who come to admire the whole planet every year. its innumerable beauties.
It is impossible not only to think of being able to summarize the attractions of Florence: if the Uffizi Gallery is one of the museums necessary for the knowledge of the history of art, the same should be said of the Accademia Gallery (where it is possible to admire Michelangelo’s monumental David) or the Bargello Museum or the Palatine Gallery; but still we would be only a minimal description of what awaits the visitor of Florence: almost every church, every building hide a masterpiece, or they are themselves masterpieces. History, architecture, painting, sculpture, literature: Florence is all this, to a degree of excellence.
An open-air museum, a living museum that guarantees a series of emotions and cultural knowledge (but not only: Florentine cuisine is almost as famous as its art) that has few equals.