Steves Rick - Rick Steves Florence & Tuscany 2015

Brunelleschis Dome of the Duomo, Florence

Florence is Europes cultural capital. As the home of the Renaissance and the birthplace of the modern world, Florence practiced the art of civilized living back when the rest of Europe was rural and crude. Democracy, science, and literature, as well as painting, sculpture, and architecture, were all championed by the proud and energetic Florentines of the 1400s.

When the Florentine poet Dante first saw the teenaged Beatrice, her beauty so inspired him that he spent the rest of his life writing poems to her. In the same way, the Renaissance opened peoples eyes to the physical beauty of the world around them, inspiring them to write, paint, sculpt, and build.

Today, Florence is geographically small but culturally rich, with more artistic masterpieces per square mile than anyplace else. In a single day, you can look Michelangelos David in the eyes, fall under the seductive sway of Botticellis Birth of Venus, and climb the modern worlds first dome, which still dominates the skyline.

Of course, theres a reality here, too. As the historic center becomes increasingly filled with visitors, rents are rising and locals are fleeing to the suburbs, threatening to make Florence a kind of Renaissance theme park. Sure, Florence is touristy. But where else can you stroll the same pedestrian streets walked by Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Botticelli while savoring the worlds best gelato?

To round out your visit, see Florence and then escape to the Tuscan countryside. With its manicured fields, rustic farms, cypress-lined driveways, and towns clinging to nearly every hill, Tuscany is our romantic image of village Italy. Venture beyond the fringes of Florence and youll find a series of sun- and wine-soaked villages, each with its own appeal. Stretching from the Umbrian border to the Ligurian Sea, the landscape changes from pastoral (Crete Senesi) to rocky (Chianti) to mountainous (the Montagnola) to flat and brushed with sea breezes (Pisa).

Use this legend to help you navigate the maps in this book.

Each of Tuscanys time-passed villages seems to have its own claim to fame: Volterra (Etruscan ruins), San Gimignano (towers), Montalcino (wine), Montepulciano (artisans), Pienza (tidy Renaissance-planned streets), and so on. But Tuscany also has a variety of intriguing cities that fully engage even the most restless traveler. Siena huddles around one of Italys coziest squares and finest cathedrals. Pisa boasts the famous Field of Miracles (with its Leaning Tower, an icon of all Italy) and a gritty working-class-meets-university-town bustle. And Lucca is graced with churches, towers, and a delightful city wall-turned-city park thats ideal for a stroll or pedal.

Youll discover that peaceful Tuscan villages and bustling Florencewith its rough-stone beauty, art-packed museums, children chasing pigeons, students riding Vespas, artisans sipping Chianti, and supermodels wearing Gucci fashionsoffer many of the very things you came to Italy to see.

Rick Steves Florence & Tuscany 2015 is a personal tour guide in your pocket. Better yet, its actually two tour guides in your pocket: The co-author of this book is Gene Openshaw. Since our first Europe through the gutter trip together as high school buddies in the 1970s, Gene and I have been exploring the wonders of the Old World. An inquisitive historian and lover of European culture, Gene wrote most of this books self-guided museum tours and neighborhood walks. Together, Gene and I keep this book up-to-date and accurate (though for simplicity, from this point weve shed our respective egos to become I).

In this book, youll find the following chapters: