Farmhouse Holidays

Farmhouse holidays in Tuscany 2008

Planning a trip to Italy? Stay in a beautiful Tuscan farmhouse.
It will most likely cost you less than a hotel and will be infinitely more restful.
In addition, many farm stays provide a swimming pool and wonderful views.


For farmhouse holidays in Chianti, click here for a range of holiday homes
and farm rooms, all available directly from their owners.


For a location convenient to Siena, Massa Marittima and the Maremma,

Tuscany is one of the most beautiful regions of Italy. It is located in the central part of the Italian peninsula, bordered by Latium to the south, Umbria and the Marche to the east, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west where it has a long coastline.

Tuscany was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and its artistic heritage includes architecture, painting and sculpture, collected in dozens of museums, the best-known of which are the Uffizi and the Bargello in Florence. Almost every town and city in the region boasts one or more fine art and archaeological museums, and there are a number of small museums in villages and country areas throughout Chianti that are worth a visit both for their contents and their architecture.

Tuscany was the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Dante Alighieri, and because of the admiration in which Dante's language was and is held, the Tuscan dialect of Italian became the national language after re-unification of the peninsula.

Tuscany is known for its wines, most famous of which are Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino, and it has 120 nature reserves.

Notable tourist destinations in Tuscany include Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano, Arezzo, Pisa, Lucca, Grosseto and the Maremma, the Crete Senesi, the Lunigiana and Garfagnana areas, and the island of Elba.

Tuscany :: Apennine and Villanovan cultures

The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron ages parallels that of the early Greeks. The Tuscan area was inhabited by peoples of the so-called Apennine culture roughly 1350–1150 BC who had trading relationships with the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations of the Aegean basin. The Villanovan culture (1100–700 BC) saw Tuscany and the rest of Etruria taken over by chiefdoms (as was also the case at this time in Greek and the Aegean after the collapse of Mycenae and Troy). City states developed in the late Villanovan (again paralleling Greece and the Aegean) before "Orientalisation" occurred and the Etruscan civilisation rose.

Etruscans

The Etruscans were the first major civilisation in this region of Italy. They were advanced enough to establish a transport infrastructure, implement agriculture and mining and to produce vivid art. Etruscan civilisation grew to fill the area between the rivers Arno and Tiber from the eighth century BC, reaching its peak during the seventh and sixth centuries BC, and finally ceded all power and territory to the Romans by the first century BC. Throughout their existence, they lost territory to the surrounding civilisations of Greece, Carthage and Gaul. Despite being described as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, and later Rome, influenced Etruscan civilisation to a great extent and this increasing lack of cultural distinction, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans, was one of the reasons for its eventual demise.

The Romans in Tuscany

Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Sienna and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of the existing transport infrastructure, introduction of aquaducts and sewers, and the construction of many buildings, both public and private. Roman civilisation finally collapsed in the fifth century AD and the region was left by the Goths, and others, without control. In the sixth century, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca their capital.

Tuscany :: the mediæval period

With pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena between Rome and France came wealth and development during the mediæval period. The food and shelter needed by these travellers fuelled the growth of new communities around churches and taverns. The conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries, split the Tuscan people.