Florence and its well loved region, Tuscany, still represent the Renaissance, an age of inspired artists of indomitable spirit. Florence's incomparable wealth of aesthetic treasures is reassuringly unchanged, and now a carefree zone protects seo content specialist
the visitor from the fumes of the traffic that has so plagued the city during recent years. Alas, the growing city that surrounds the historical center of Florence owes nothing to Renaissance planning and everything to an expansion caused by a diminishing agricultural economy and a' growing number of foreign workers, as Italy, along with the rest of Europe, tries to accommodate the millions who want to immigrate. The most menial work is often done by foreigners, as it once was by emigrant Italians in other parts of the world.
Tuscany, lying northwest of Lazio, is at once golden fields and black green cypresses defining hillside boundaries and the cities of Medieval and Renaissance Siena and even older Pisa, as well as ancient Etruscan sites. But there is also a Tuscan coastline 200 miles long, where the Argentario peninsula leads to Porto Ercole's expensive, glamorous coast and islands as well: Giannutri, whose sea depths reveal Roman galleons, and Elba (Lucky Napoleon, wrote Dylan Thomas). Tuscany's Chianti is as pleasurable to see in the growing as it is to drink, and at Greve, for example, you'll taste the year's vintage accompanied by sausage cured on the ashes of a wood fire. You may want to stay on an estate and sample the land's bounty at close quarters.
The fertile plain of Emilia Romagna, north across the Apennines from Tuscany, attracts lovers of food: truffles and porcini mushrooms, tortellini Bolognese, and zampone (pig's foot) modernize. Parma has French allure, with Parma ham and Parmigiano cheese thrown in for gastronomes and Verdi's various dwellings displayed for opera lovers. Bolo gna is a mixture of medieval shadows and modern university life; Ferrara has splendid castles and Ravenna the soft gold of Byzantine mosaics. Northeast of Emilia Romagna is the Veneto, which claims the legendary Venice as one of its cities.
The Vento's plains are elegantly arrayed with Palladian villas, and the idyllic town of Asolo is a nice place to return to after a hard day's touring. Venice, the impossibly beautiful, is purely impossible when tourist crowds overrun its legendary canals. It's best to see this romantic city on breezy spring mornings when the wind whips the waves to whitecaps and jostles the gondolas at their moorings, but it is almost equally fascinate ing on winter days beneath a pearl gray sky. Is Venice sinking into the sea? Apparently. Is there some times an odor of aging algae in summer? Yes. Should you then snub the Queen of the Adriatic? That would be like avoiding spring because the earth is damp and earthworms might come out.
East of the Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia rounds the top of the Adriatic Sea, stretching from the beaches at Lignano to Trieste, where James Joyce taught English and wrote in exile. North of the coastline, hills covered with vineyards (and farms producing the finest prosciutto) lead toward wooded, rocky mountains dotted with colorful, undiscovered villages and the border with Austria.
North of the Veneto the Dolomite mountains and green pastures of TrentinoAlto Adige betray the nearness of Austria. The pristine towns and hamlets of this region offer facilities for hikers, skiers, and fishermen an abundance of summer and winter pleasures in a dramatic landscape punctuated with medieval castles and churches.
The north central region, Lombardy, is the richest in Italy, in finance, industry, and agriculture. Here you will find Milan, the sleek capital of Italian design and finance, proud of its accomplishments that have given the Made in Italy label precedence in the best of boutiques. The city's monuments to the arts the Brera painting collections and the world famous La Scala opera house in particular keep the city high on artistic itineraries, and restaurants such as Gualtiero Marchesi keep gourmands stylishly thin with ravioli aperti (open topped ravioli) and scalloping with sweet and sour sauce. Go to Milan in August, when everyone is gone and the vast city is quiet and pretty as a country town; many museums and restaurants stay open during the summer these days for the convenience of visitors.
Lago di Como may be the lake best known for its beauty, but lesser known Lago d'Orta and its town of San Giulio are so appealing that you may not want to move on to anywhere else at all. Lago Maggiore and its principal town of Stresa from which the Isola Bella is an easy boat excursion away and Lago d'Iseo and Lago di Garda farther east, are quiet places, provided you don't choose to travel here in the summer. You may want to stay at the lakes when visiting Milan, allowing yourself a city to explore by day and an expanse of blue to soften the night.
In the far northwest is the mountainous region of Valle d'Aosta, beloved of skiers and hikers. To its south, and to the west of Lombardy, is Piedmont, the region of the Nebbiolo grape, source of the Barolo and Barbaresco vintages both of which have caused tasters to question France's primacy in wines. Piedmont's tables, laden with gnocchi, fonduta (fondue), bollito misto with salsa verde (boiled meat with a parsley based sauce), and other passions of the gastronomic heart, lure many a hungry traveler. Turin, the often neglected capital of the region, is not industrialized at all at its center, as is often believed. Instead, this former capital of Italy stretches out in a handsome pattern of parks and palaces, arcades and notable museums its Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) has few rivals. West of Turin, Sestriere and other resorts cater to skiers.
