Tuscany

Going to the south you get close to Pisa, which, together with Lucca and Florence, is one of the most significant tourist attraction. In the past it was a maritime Republic, today Pisa hosts the biggest and well-known architectural complex of the Romanesque Europe: “Piazza dei Miracoli” (Square of Miracles), place where Galileo Galilei, the famous scientist, discovered the “equations for a falling body” doing expertiments from the “Torre Pendente” (Leaning Tower), more than 4 centuries ago. Pisa still has a scientific importance, as it hosts one of the most illustrious University of Italy. For this reason many students from all over the country and the world, come here to attend the classes. Thanks to them Pisa is very lively and culturally interesting throughout the year.

You can have delightful walks in its down town between the splendid squares and the noble palaces which follow one another up to the river Arno that pass through the city giving a charming portrait of Pisa.
Also the area all around Pisa has a remarkable historical, artistic and landscape interest.
There are hills of olive groves, little hamlets as Calci with its fourtheen-century “Certosa” (Charterhouse of Pisa), Vicopisano and Buti, at last but not the least San Giuliano Terme and Uliveto Termeknown health spa.
The Pisa coast, which goes from Viareggio to Leghorn, has got an important natural and no-urbanized area which includes the natural parks of Migliarino, Massaciuccoli and San Rossore where you can find lakes, woods and plantations, and the park of the “Secche della Meloria” (Meloria’s shallows) which sea bottoms have noble naturalist interest.
The hinterland consists in the Cècina Valley and the Era Valley.
Volterra is the jewel of this part of Tuscany. Even if it is little known, this town is extraordinary full of Etruscan and Medieval History and of the Renaissance (it is the place where the novel Twilight occurrs). Enclosed in the walls it is high on the hills that’s why it is called “the city of the wind”. There are many streets to reach Volterra but the best is the one which comes from Pisa, it keeps close to the spectacular ancient Cliff, and maybe it is this particular shape that makes Volterra a  unique place out of time.
Together with other  cities, Volterra was one of the twelve most powerful cities where the important monks lived.
The area of the Alta Val d’Era includes: Palaia, Terricciola, Casciana Terme, Crespina, Chianni, Lari and Lajatico, which hosts the “Teatro del Silenzio” (Theatre of Silence), where every year in July the famous singer Bocelli holds a majestic concert attracting spectators from all over the world.
These hills represent the idea of Tuscany known by stangers: country roads, typical tuscan ochre and grey farmhouses, often with the double cypress row. In the hills the old traditions go on. The rural area is being carefully worked, the fruit trees reign in the nature and the olive groves and vine are the result of an intense agricultural activity. The several farms produce olive oil, fruit, wheat but especially high quality wine. Indeed one of the 14 tuscan wine roads goes through these lands. Many people come here when the farms open their doors to visitors for wine tasting tours in their prestigious and exclusive cellars.