Discover Tuscany’s Blog: exploring Tuscany and all its hidden corners…

We saw this information circulating around on strikes that have been announced over the next month and thought it would be useful information to share with our readers traveling to and within Italy before the holiday season (strikes are are not allowed during the holiday season so they have to take place before a certain date).

Here is what you need to know:

November 17, 2011
sector: Transportation, General Strike for Transportation
when: AIR – 24 hours, Trains – 24 hours: starting from 9pm on 11/16 to 9pm 11/17, TPL – 24 hours, Marittime 24 hours, from 8am on 11/17 to 8am on 11/18 (connections to minor islands 24 hours).

November 26, 2011
sector: Railways: Personnel that drive emergency trains for Trenitalia and Trenord
when: 24 hours, from 9pm on 11/26 to 9pm 11/27

December 2, 2011
sector: Air: Flight Assistants for ALITALIA-CAI and Personnel for Enav Acc Padova
when: 4 hours, from 10am to 2pm

December 16, 2011
sector: Local public transportation
when: 24 hours, each area will follow their own schedules

Source: http://www.mit.gov.it/mit/site.php?p=scioperi

An Argentine tourist, 64 years old, traveling with his wife in Italy as part of a tour group making their way down to Rome, stopped for a day in Siena. In the afternoon, he stopped at a very popular bar in the center of Siena and unfortunately forgot his bag behind when he left. A very common occurrence, can happen to anyone. And fortunately no one noticed the bag until the owner found it as he closed for the night. Inside were the man’s passport, cellphone and travel money, well over € 3,500 and about US$ 1,300!! Definitely a tourist that believes in cash over plastic.

The bar owner called the police and turned in the forgotten bag. After some calls, the police were able to track the tour group and the hotel in Rome where the entire group was staying at. The man was clearly agitated for the loss of the bag and very relieved to have been able to recover it – his and his wife’s vacation was salvaged.

To clearly avoid this type of shock while you travel, in Italy and elsewhere, please remember that travel belts and wallets that you wear under your clothing are not just to keep your essential documents and travel money away from pickpockets. They are also useful because hard to leave behind at a bar, restaurant, on a bus or train (which happens very often) since you’re wearing them and will no doubt save a lot of worry and agitation on a vacation.

Safe travels to everyone!

A year is passed and June has come. On the third Saturday of June there will take place a great medieval festival, very famous in Italy: La Giostra del Saracino or the Saracen Joust of Arezzo.

The Saracen Joust takes places twice per year (June and September) in Piazza Grande, beautiful square in Arezzo. This year it’s on June 19th at 9.30 pm. But the festival starts on Friday 11th when Captains take the inaugural oath and the draw of sequence of carriere (charges). Every day from Saturday to Tuesday there are the heats around 7.30 pm. Read the full post »

As most probably already know by now, the ashes of the Eyjafjallajokull, an Iceland volcano, continue to spread forming an ash cloud over Europe. This in turn has caused closure of important European airports in London, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam and cancellation of flights across the rest of Europe.

This, of course, has a direct impact on the travel plans of all those visiting the Old Continent at the moment. Apart from the mayhem of being caught at airports or between hotels and airport,  the concern is being raised over the quality of the air we breathe in. So far, the WHO has issued an advisory saying that as long as the ash remains in the upper atmosphere, there is not likely to be increased health risk.

Experts said most people had no reason to be alarmed. While people with asthma or lung disease could stay indoors to avoid irritation, there is little real danger, especially with the ash falling so far from the source.

Air quality so far has not been affected in Italy but that might change depending on whether the volcano keeps up its activity, on the direction of the winds and temperature.

The ash cloud has not reached Tuscany so far, although predictions say it could arrive by the end of today but in a very diluted form. The most updated news source is La Repubblica (use Google translator to get an idea of what is being said). For now, our plans of hiking this week are still on, we’ll see how things progress and let you know.

Forbes magazine recently published “Europe’s Most Idyllic Places to Live” with a raking of five favorite simple, unspoiled and near-heavenly locations to take up residence in Europe according to a panel of experts in the fields of travel and relocation.

Lucca came in second place, a charming medieval city in Tuscany, just after the Greek island of Patmos.

Lucca was chosen, according to Forbes, because while it has the charm of other Tuscan towns such as Pisa, it lacks the crowds and confusion. The beautiful, walled medieval city has an enviable geographic location just 45 miles from Florence, about an hour from the Tuscan beaches in one direction and an hour from skiing in Abetone in the other.

Continue reading about the idyllic city of Lucca >>

Arezzo's Duomo, dedicated to San Donato

We just got back from a short trip to Arezzo, a charming town in southern Tuscany, that we took to celebrate my recent birthday. Not as popular to tourists as the nearby Cortona, we were pleasantly surprised with what Arezzo has to offer.

We got to Arezzo in under an hour by train from Florence. We quickly dropped off our bag at the elegant four star Vogue Hotel just 2 blocks from the train station and set off to explore the city. Set on a hill, all of the main sights are set on the slope while the cathedral is at the very top. So be prepared to do a bit of climbing, although most of it is gradual.

We soon discovered that the things to see in Arezzo can be organized around the figure of Piero della Francesca and his frescoes. The Gothic Basilica of San Francesco houses his fresco cycle “Legend of the True Cross” and is considered one of the highlights. With the sun shining (weather forecast was for rain), we decided to bypass it at first and came back later when the rain started.
Continue reading about our visit to Arezzo »

As you probably already know, on the night of April 6 a strong earthquake (5.8 on the Richter scale) hit the region of Abruzzo in central Italy. The medieval city of L’Aquila, the region’s capital, was hit hard and other minor cities around it, like Onna, have been almost completely destroyed. The buildings were too old to withstand the earthquake, and homes, churches and monuments made of stone collapsed or were severely damaged. There are 281 victims, with a lot of students making up the toll as l’Aquila is mostly a university city. The number of victims is likely to grow as the search among the rubble continues through Easter.

Thousands of persons have been left without a home. The earth continues to tremble and the aftershocks make it impossible for a lot of people to go back into their homes, many of which are severely damaged and which could come down at any moment.
A great number of volunteers have arrived from all of Italy: it is in moments of need like this that we Italians truly feel part of the same community and are able to give our best. In truth, aid is arriving from all over the world which shows how much Italy is loved.

Local news in Italy say that at this point it is best to send money as there are already enough volunteers and material aid. For donations, it is better to use well-known official channels such as the Red Cross:

• Italian Red Cross: http://www.cri.it/donazioni/
• Red Cross US : www.redcross.org/
• Red Cross UK: http://www.redcross.org.uk/news.asp?id=93875

There will be a need for a large, sustained effort to recover and reconstruct as there are so many people left with nothing. We hope that even after this tragedy will no longer be at the top of the news, aid and funds will continue to arrive and that the promises made by politicians in Rome will be maintained.

All of us in the Discover Tuscany team wish to express our feeling of solidarity and sorrow to all of the families that have been hit by this tragedy.

This is the list of Florence State museums that will be open on April 13 (“Pasquetta” or Angel’s Monday) as advertised on the official site.
Many of these are generally open on Sundays so they’ll be open on Easter Sunday. Check the site above for hours and to double check which ones will be open on Sunday.

apertura ordinaria – would normally be open on this Monday anyways
Cappelle Medicee
Museo di Casa Davanzati
Giardino di Boboli, Museo delle Porcellane, Museo degli Argenti and Galleria del Costume (biglietto unico, a common ticket for these museums)

apertura straordinaria – normally closed on Mondays
Galleria degli Uffizi
Galleria dell’Accademia
Galleria Palatina e Galleria d’Arte Moderna (biglietto unico, a common ticket for these museums)
Museo di San Marco
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
Villa della Petraia
Villa di Poggio a Caiano

photo by dan taylor

While it hasn’t been made official yet, the word is out that New Moon, the second Twilight sequel, will not be shot in Volterra as we had reported earlier. Twilight fans and locals are very disappointed, but it seems the production is being “realistic” and saying a town the size of Volterra cannot accommodate all of the filming crew.

Some scenes will still be shot in Volterra (piazza and palazzo dei Priori) but most on-location shots will occur in Montepulciano, another medieval Tuscan hilltop village about an hour away also deemed “more beautiful” for filming.

Montelpulciano is a charming town which we like and highly recommend visiting, but if size matters, Montelpulciano’s medieval center is actually smaller than Volterra’s! Both are beautiful in their own right but more importantly, since Stephanie Meyer’s book is set in and the Volturis family comes from Volterra, fans wanted to see Volterra on the big screen. If you’re coming all the way to Tuscany to shoot on location, does it make sense to not shoot in the actual town which is less than an hour away?

I suppose in the world of movies, anything is possible. Maybe any medieval town is the same as the next one?? Like I said, the announcement has not yet been made officially so we could still be pleasantly surprised. What do you think?