Ode to Tuscany ! From Padua To Tuscany Italy August 9-11, 1996 A

白桦林

Tuscany

Ode

Padua

Italy

August

11

1996

Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace

Thanks for Katia and Roberto, my best Italian clients as well as friends, they showed me the best of Tuscany in the very limited time!

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 sq mi) and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence. 

There are ten provinces in the Tuscany , Katia and Roberto are all from Arezzo which is 38 miles from Florence.

My trip started from the city Padua.

Thanks Roberto! It took nearly eight hours to drive to the hotel in your home town. 🙏

Padua is a city in Northern Italy’s Veneto region. It’s known for the frescoes by Giotto in its Scrovegni Chapel from 1303–05 . Missed it and Must see it some day!

Roberto came to the city of Padua to pick me up heading to the South.

Going to Rimini first to see a client.

Built in 1985, Gros Rimini is a genuine “city” with more than 170 commercial businesses in the wholesale and fashion sectors

St Marino

San Marino is one of the world's smallest countries. Surrounded by Italy, it is an echo from an era when city-states proliferated across Europe.

I was excited to pass through such a small country first time in my life!

Fortress of San Leo

San Leo is a small Italian town, interestingly perched on the rock, located in the province of Rimini, near San Marino .

Currently the castle houses a museum and an art gallery in arms.

There was a Jazz Blue Performance to be held in the castle. Roberto told me that it was very in

fashion to have held all kind of concerts, 

performences in a ancient castle, temple, ruins in 

Italy.

On the land of Tuscany

Throughout Tuscany, beautiful landscapes are graced by the familiar and charming Cypress trees.

Why Tuscany people like so much about the Cypress tree? I am curious to explore the answer as 

follows:

1: Cypress as a religious symbol and of life and death, and used it in many sacred sites.

2: In Tuscany, Cypress trees are a prevalent part of the landscape. They  seem to stand like watchmen, overlooking grand villas and humble farmsteads alike.

3: The long lines of Cypresses to be seen throughout Tuscany serve as windbreaks, and they provide an excellent source of strong and valuable wood

4: The Cypress can live thousand years old, and usually grows to a height of 20-25 meters: the graceful and majestic Cypress is still a vital symbol of longevity today.

5: Sadly, in recent years this great symbol of the Tuscan landscape has been attacked by the Coryneum Cardinale virus, possibly brought from the United States during World War II.

Scientists are battling to save these trees, and hopefully they will succeed. In a way, saving them means saving Tuscany.

Lyric landscapes

　　The characteristic landscape of Tuscany is a blend of gently rolling hills leading on to sharply peaked mountains that pose a formidable barrier between Tuscany and regions to the south.

The hotel I stayed was in Subbiano Carsentino,"a land of prayer and passion"!

Hotel Torre Santa Flora

Much to my excitment, I stayed in this medieval tower that was formerly a mill built by monks during 12 century.  .  Tuscan Elegance with beamed ceiling and terracotta floor.

The Hotel staff is very amiable! He helped to take all photos for me when I was there.

A group of delightful painted plates on the wall

Walking in the town of Subinanna

Locanda Al Castello Di Sorci ( Mouse's Castle)

Katia anf Roberto brought me here for lunch on Aug. 10, 1996.

Excellent restaurant in a medieval atmosphere!

It is anothet example that Itslian people like to turn a castle into a restaurant.

Roberto told me that lots of famous people coming here to enjoy foods!

It was an unforgetable lunch! 

Katia and Roberto ordered abundant food to treat me.

With at least 8/9 cousrs , it took nearly two hours to finishe all meals . I was completely full from thetop to toe!

We ate : salame finocciona black & red crostini,

Tagliatelle, minestral di farro....

Great authentic Italian food! Definitely one of the best Italian meals I have ever eaten! 

After lunch, we strolled along the open door garden.

Katia and Roberto found a right place to have a

Rest! 😂😂

Looking around , we found the owner of the Mouse' Castle living here

View from Anghiari

Caprese Michelangelo : The birthplace of 

Michelangelo 

Michelangelo was born on the 6th of March 1475 

in this house.

Now it become Michelangelo Museum 

Today, the museum is home to a wonderful collection of objects that tell the story of the town, the artist, the art, and other Italian artists.

Thanks for Roberto brought me here! He said that

I might be the first Chinese people to visit here 

for it is not so famous, but important. 

Roberto' Beloved Villa was on the hill.

Katia smailing to us from the corner

With Roberto ' beloved family menbers:

Roberto/ Elena: Roberto's Mother/ Roberta:

Roberto's younder sister /Me / Doemenico: Roberto's Father

The white horse of

Roberto's family

The Boboli Gardens (Giardino di Boboli ) in Florence, in front of the Pitti Palace, home of Medici family in the renaissance, that is a highlight in Tuscany.

The Boboli gardens are a spectacular example of "green architecture" decorated with sculptures and the prototype which inspired many European Royal gardens, in particular, Versailles.

GROTTA GRANDE (the Buontalenti Grotto)

VIOTTOLONE (a large avenue)

It was flanked by cypresses and statuettes that then lead all the way down.

Thanks for Roberto brought me to this amazing park which has the best panoramic view of the Florence City ！The perfect place for taking a long walk! As Roberto said, we touched every corner of the park!

 Duomo di Firenze : Icon of Florence

The Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the top museums in the world, as well as one of the oldest. 

Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge)

Its colours are awesome! Impossibly green in springtime and intense burned yellow hues in Summer or Autumn, with solitary ochre houses standing on top of hills flanked by giant cypresses that reach upward to the sky. See it for yourself and you’ll understand why so many films have been shot here and why artists come here from all over the world in search of inspiration!💕

Tuscany had already begun to appear in films at the beginning of the 1900s. Among the better known movies featuring or filmed in Tuscany are: A Room with a View (1885)

　　Filmed in Florence.

The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996), which won 9 Oscars.

Filmed in Montepulciano, Versilia and the countryside around Pienza

Stealing Beauty (1996)

Filmed in Siena

Life Is Beautiful. (Roberto Benigni, 1997)

　　Set and Filmed in Arezzo.

Tea with Mussolini (Franco Zeffirelli, 1999)
Filmed in Florence and The Piazza Cisterna
in San Gimignano

Gladiator （2000）

　　The scene where Maximus rides back home from the war along a cypress lined path to arrive only too late to save his family.

Filmed in Val D’orcia valley

Pinocchio (Roberto Benigni 2002)

Filmed between Siena and Arezzo

Under the Tuscan Sun (Audrey Wells, 2003) 

Filmed around Montepulciano, Cortona and 

the Amalfi coast The Best Youth (2003)

Filmed in Florence

The Twilight Saga: The New Moon (Chris Weitz, 2010)

Filmed in Montepulciano.

Found in the heart of Italy, there is a land where time stands still. With its silvery olive groves, fields of sunflowers, vineyards and stone farms, ancient medieval castles, lined of Cypress trees, and its enchanting Renaissance cities such as Florence, it can be said that Tuscany encompasses all of the many unique qualities of Italy. All of these are caress for one' soul!

Yet, besides it timeless beautiful

Landscape, whatelse of Tuscany touched me so much? I ask myself again and again. Found 

the answer  at  last: holding a jazz blue performence in a Fortress , luching in a ancient castle, sleeping in a medieval  tower made by monks, Tuscany people have no second forgotton their 

Own history .  Instead , they worship and respect their historicsl heritage profoundly. The thousand years rich Italian history just as chain now that melts the blood in the heart of Tuscany people. Isn't this the soul of Tuscany culture?

As National Geographic lists Tuscany being one of the 50 Places of a Lifetime to be visited, I feel so grateful and hornor that once in a life time , with the great help of Katia and Roberto,  I had been this Land ! Grazie Katia! Grazie Roberto!

Tuscany will be forever  in my mind and heart!

Ode to Tuscany!