GO VISTA: Travel Guide Tuscany

About the Travel Destination Tuscany
It is not God, but humans who have shaped Tuscany, at least those landscapes that are presented countless times on book covers and in film reports: rounded hills with pointed cypress trees and broad umbrella pines, fields of poppies and irises, or vineyards in Chianti and elsewhere. In the other Tuscany, where grunting wild boars live, the classic cypress trees are absent, as seen in the Maremma and the Chianti forests, or in the dark green Garfagnana northwest of Lucca and in the Casentino east of Florence.

In the southwest of Garfagnana, fine calcite crystals solidified into white marble millions of years ago. Especially in Carrara and Massa, the stone has been quarried from the mountains since ancient times. South of the marble towns, the Tuscan coast begins with 330 kilometers of coastline and predominantly deep sandy beaches. Numerous rivers and streams flow southward from the northern central area of Tuscany to fill the Arno, within whose basin lie two of the most culturally and historically significant cities: Florence and Pisa. Southeast of Florence, behind the Pratomagno, the forest landscape of Casentino unfolds. Here, wonderful towns like Poppi, Bibbiena, and Arezzo beckon.

Southwest of this lies Siena, Italy's most beautiful medieval metropolis. In the northwest of Siena, more historic towns can be found: Colle di Val d’Elsa, San Gimignano, and Volterra. Along the coast, Populonia and Piombino are ancient mining sites of the Etruscans and later the Romans. Mining also took place between Massa Marittima and Campiglia Marittima, as well as on Elba, the largest Tuscan island. In the southeast, the Etruscans chose areas with tuff stone, which could easily be carved into caves. In the province of Grosseto, it becomes lonely and quiet, as well as in the Parco Naturale della Maremma, with mountains, forests, macchia, and sandy beaches.

About the Go Vista Info Guide Tuscany
According to the Chronicle.