Visiting Italy: Tuscany Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Tuscany is in the west of Italy and in the northern part of the central region. It has a coastline on the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas, both part of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the home of the Renaissance, with enough history and art to last for the longest visit.

Pisa is best known for its bell tower, which has a distinct lean due to poor foundations. It was closed to the public between 1990 and 2001 while work was carried out to stabilise it. The tower is not the only place worth visiting, as the Piazza dei Miracoli also has Pisa's cathedral and baptistry. It is also surrounded by palaces, museums and other sites of interest. San Gimignano is more inland, and is a walled mediaeval town, situated on the top of a hill. It is best known for its many towers, and the stunning view over the Tuscan countryside. Arezzo is even further inland, lying fifty miles (eighty km) from Florence and to the south east. It is famous as the home of Giorgio Vasari, the early Renaissance artist, and has history dating from Etruscan times.

Florence is the capital city of Tuscany and the 'jewel in the crown' of the region. Wherever you look there are sights of outstanding beauty including the cathedral (Duomo), the Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio and Santa Croce church. The Uffizi has works of art such as the 'The Birth of Venus', by Botticelli and 'Medusa' by Caravaggio. The original statue of David is in the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze with a copy in the open air, while Santa Croce has the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo to name just a few.

Pienza is in the southern part of Tuscany and the town was declared a World Heritage site in 1996. It is renowned for its Renaissance style architecture with numerous buildings dating back to the fifteenth century. Cortona is another town with Etruscan history and is located near Arezzo. It has mosaics dating from Roman times as well, plus many mediaeval buildings.

Lucca, the birthplace of composer Puccini, is still surrounded by its walls, dating from the Renaissance era. They provide a pleasant stroll while enabling visitors to admire the countryside. It has a cathedral and a tower, Torre Guinigi, which dates from the latter part of the fourteenth century. If you're energetic enough, you climb the two hundred plus stairs to the top to be rewarded with panoramic views of your surroundings. Collodi is a village not far from Lucca, where the houses are built into a hill giving the appearance of a cascade down the hillside. The author of 'Pinocchio' took his pen-name from the village.

Siena is another Tuscan city to date from Etruscan times, but most people will associate it with the Palio, a horse race around the city's square, the Piazza del Campo. The race is normally run twice a year, once in July and again in August, with riders and horses chosen from the city's contrade, or districts. The contrade are identified by their individual names, from nature, such as snail and forest, and their symbols. As you explore the city, you know you are passing from one contrada to another by the designs on the walls of the buildings. Livorno is on the coast and is a port city. It was once called Leghorn in English, and the name of the chicken breed comes from here. For hundreds of years it was one of Tuscany's most important cities but its status declined towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Portoferraio is the largest city on the island of Elba, which is in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is where Napoleon was exiled the first time, and is fairly close to his birthplace of Corsica, an island owned by France. The island is part of the province of Livorno. Pescia lies between Lucca and Florence and the two cities fought for control of it several times. It was particularly known for growing mulberries which, in turn, created a silk industry. The name of the city comes from the river on which it is located.

The non-Tuscan places are Verona, in Veneto in northern Italy, famous for its associations with 'Romeo and Juliet'. Also in Veneto is Padua, which Shakespeare also wrote about. Asti, associated with the sparkling wine with that name, is in north west Italy, in Piedmont. South of Tuscany is Umbria, which is where both Perugia and Assisi are located. Perugia is the capital city of the region while Assisi is known for the patron saint of animals, St Francis. Castel Gandolfo is located in Lazio, not far from Rome. Otranto and Bari are both in Apulia, in the south east of the mainland and forming the 'heel' of Italy. Both of them border the Adriatic Sea.