Tuscany: history and heritage

About Tuscany: history and heritage

By the ULTIMATE Tuscany Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Tuscany takes its name from the Etruscans, the people who ruled central Italy before Rome. In the Middle Ages its cities, Pisa, Lucca, Siena and Florence, became rich, rival republics; in the fifteenth century Florence led the Renaissance; and the Tuscan dialect of Dante became the Italian language. Few regions have given the world so much.

At a glance

Population: about 3.7 million in the region of Tuscany, and about 360,000 in Florence (ISTAT).

Names through history: Etruria (Roman, after the Etruscans, Tusci), Tuscia, Toscana.

The Etruscans gave Tuscany its name, and Dante gave Italy its language.

Shaped by: the Etruscans, Rome, the Lombards and Franks, the medieval republics, the Medici grand dukes (1569–1737), the house of Lorraine, and Italy from 1861.

UNESCO World Heritage includes: the historic centres of Florence, Siena, San Gimignano and Pienza; Piazza del Duomo in Pisa; the Val d’Orcia; and the Medici villas and gardens.

The Etruscans

From the ninth century BC the Etruscans built hilltop cities across what is now Tuscany: Volterra, Cortona, Chiusi, Fiesole and Populonia. Their painted tombs, bronze figures and alabaster urns fill the Guarnacci Museum in Volterra and the National Archaeological Museum in Florence.

Rome

Rome absorbed Etruria by the third century BC. Florence was founded as Florentia, a colony for veterans, around 59 BC; Lucca’s oval Piazza dell’Anfiteatro follows the shape of its Roman arena.

The city-states

In the Middle Ages the Tuscan cities became independent communes. Pisa, a sea power, built its Field of Miracles, with the cathedral, baptistery and leaning tower; Siena built its shell-shaped Campo and its cathedral and held the Palio; San Gimignano’s families raised towers to outdo each other. Florence’s bankers and wool merchants made the florin the dollar of medieval Europe.

The Medici and the Renaissance

From the 1430s the Medici bankers dominated Florence and paid for much of its art. Filippo Brunelleschi completed the cathedral dome in 1436; Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, whose David now stands in the Accademia, worked here; and the Uffizi, built as offices for the Medici, became one of the world’s great galleries.

The language of Dante

Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio wrote in the Florentine vernacular, and the Accademia della Crusca, founded in Florence in 1583, made Tuscan the basis of standard Italian. In Tuscany, people say, Italian is simply spoken best.

Grand duchy to Italy

The Medici ruled as grand dukes of Tuscany from 1569 to 1737, followed by the house of Lorraine. Tuscany joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, and Florence was the capital of Italy from 1865 to 1871. The Val d’Orcia, with its cypresses and hill towns, was inscribed as a cultural landscape in 2004.

Our advice: book the Uffizi and the Accademia ahead, climb the dome at opening time, then leave Florence for a day in Siena and a night in the Val d’Orcia, where the Renaissance painted its landscapes.

Sources

Population: Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), resident population. History: Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore; Gallerie degli Uffizi; Accademia della Crusca; UNESCO World Heritage Centre; Regione Toscana.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Tuscany: history and heritage before you go.