Insight Guides - Insight Guides Tuscany

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Tuscany, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editors Choice categories of activities and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Tuscany. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, activities from culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Tuscany are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Tuscany. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

2015 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Tuscanys Top 10 Attractions

The enigmatic Etruscans, the wine-loving Tuscans, Italys loveliest hill towns, the worlds finest museum of Renaissance art, the iconic Leaning Tower, countryside that inspired Leonardo da Vinci Tuscany has it all.

Top Attraction 1

Val dOrcia landscape . With its farmhouses, abbeys and conical hills, this pastoral landscape was redrawn in the 14th and 15th centuries to reflect good governance and create an aesthetically pleasing picture that has inspired many artists. For more information, .

Robert Harding

Top Attraction 2

The Leaning Tower of Pisa . Finally fully restored, this iconic symbol of Tuscan architectural genius stands alongside the gleaming Duomo and Baptistery on Pisas aptly named Campo dei Miracoli the Field of Miracles. For more information, .

iStock

Top Attraction 3

San Gimignano, a medieval Manhattan . As Italys best-preserved medieval town, Tuscanys time capsule survives, with its bold towers signifying San Gimignanos prestige and prosperity. A beguiling spirit transcends the towns over-popularity. For more information, .

Shutterstock

Top Attraction 4

Florentine churches . From Brunelleschis dazzling Duomo to Romanesque San Miniato, Gothic Santa Croce and Michelangelos Medici tombs in San Lorenzo, Florentine churches are mesmerising repositories of art and history. For more information, .

Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 5

Wine-tasting in the Chianti . Ignore the Chiantishire tag and visit a chequered landscape of vineyards, villages and fortified-wine estates that include the Castello di Brolio, birthplace of the modern Chianti industry. For more information, .

Steve McDonald/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 6

Etruscan Tuscany . Whether in Volterras intriguing Etruscan museum or Chiusis painted tombs, the colour and life of Etruscan art contrasts with the cold perfectionism of the Greeks and Romans. For more information, .

Scala Archives

Top Attraction 7

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence . The worlds greatest collection of Renaissance art includes masterpieces such as Botticellis Birth of Venus , and works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and other masters of the High Renaissance. For more information, .

Scala Archives

Top Attraction 8

Hill towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino . Montepulciano and Montalcino draw you in with their palaces, seductive lifestyle and cellars of famed wines. Sip Vino Nobile in Cantine Contucci or sample Brunello di Montalcino in the Fortezza. For more information, .

Steve McDonald/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 9

Tuscan spas . Despite dating back to Etruscan times, Tuscanys new breed of thermal spas combine sophisticated pampering with authentic water cures in incomparable natural settings as in Fonteverde Terme or Terme di Saturnia. For more information, .