50 Fun Facts About Tuscany

Roughly how many visitor arrivals did Florence record in 2018?

Over 5 million arrivals in 2018 for Florence alone; Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena and Lucca are the region's other tourist magnets.

Which ancient civilisation gave Tuscany its name?

The Etruscans: the Romans called their homeland Etruria, later Tuscia, a name that became Toscana and then Tuscany.

Which red wine is Tuscany's most internationally famous?

Chianti leads, with Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano the other big Tuscan names.

Which tongue-in-cheek nickname reflects the many Britons who holiday in Tuscany's hills?

Chiantishire: so many Britons bought villas and holidayed in the Chianti hills between Florence and Siena that the area was nicknamed as if it were an English county.

Which river flows through Tuscany's capital, Empoli and Pisa?

The Arno's valley holds most of the region's scarce plains, just 8.4 percent of Tuscany's area.

Which family dominated the Tuscan capital from 1434 and later ruled the Grand Duchy?

The Medici: Cosimo de' Medici took control of Florence on his return from exile in 1434, Cosimo I became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569, and the line died out with Gian Gastone in 1737.

Between which years was the Grand Duchy of Tuscany an independent state?

1569 to 1859: Cosimo I de' Medici was raised to Grand Duke in 1569, and the Grand Duchy lasted, apart from the Napoleonic interruption, until the 1859 revolution drove out Leopold II.

To whom was Tuscany transferred when the ruling family died out in 1737?

Francis of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa and later Emperor Francis I, received Tuscany in 1737 in exchange for giving up Lorraine; his house held it until 1859.

Which state annexed Tuscany in March 1860 on the way to Italian unification?

The Kingdom of Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel II annexed Tuscany on 22 March 1860 after a plebiscite; the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed a year later.

After the 2021 inscriptions, how many Tuscan localities were UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

Eight: Florence's historic centre (1982), Pisa's Piazza del Duomo, San Gimignano, Siena, Pienza, the Val d'Orcia, the Medici villas and gardens, and one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe (2021).

Which Tuscan spa town joined the World Heritage list in 2021 as one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe?

Montecatini Terme was inscribed in July 2021 as the only Italian member of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, a serial site of eleven towns across seven countries.

Standard Italian is based on the literary dialect of which Tuscan city?

Florence: the Florentine of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio became Italy's literary standard in the 14th century, and Manzoni famously went to 'rinse his clothes in the Arno' to model I promessi sposi on it.

Which Florentine wrote the Divine Comedy, completed shortly before his death in 1321?

Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy in Florentine Tuscan between about 1308 and 1320, and its success did more than any other work to make Tuscan the basis of literary Italian.

Siena's Palio, the bareback horse race around the Piazza del Campo, is run how many times a year?

Twice: on 2 July for the Madonna of Provenzano and on 16 August for the Assumption.

How many of Siena's seventeen contrade compete in each Palio?

Ten: the seven contrade that missed the corresponding Palio the previous year run by right, and three more are drawn by lot from the other ten.

How many laps of the Piazza del Campo does the Palio run?

Three laps of the piazza, bareback on a thick layer of earth, are over in about a minute and a half.

By 1990, how far had the Leaning Tower of Pisa tilted?

5.5 degrees: the tower was closed to visitors in 1990 at its maximum lean, and remedial work from 1993 to 2001 brought it back to 3.97 degrees.

In what year were the foundations of the Leaning Tower of Pisa laid?

1173: the first stone was laid on 9 August 1173, the tower began to lean during construction on soft ground, and it was finished 199 years later in 1372.

Which island of the Tuscan Archipelago held Napoleon in his first exile, from 1814 to 1815?

Elba received Napoleon on 4 May 1814, when he landed at its main port aboard HMS Undaunted, and held him until 1815.

What is the principal town of Napoleon's exile island, fortified by Cosimo I and briefly renamed Cosmopoli?

Portoferraio: Cosimo I de' Medici fortified it in 1548 and named it Cosmopoli; Napoleon's residence in exile, the Villa dei Mulini, stands above the town.

Which town's surrounding quarries make Tuscany famous for marble?

Carrara: the Apuan Alps quarries above the town have supplied white Carrara marble since Roman times, including the block Michelangelo carved into his David.

Which Tuscan town is the home of scooter and motorcycle manufacturing?

Pontedera has been home to Piaggio since 1924; the first Vespa scooter left its factory there in 1946, and the Piaggio Museum in the old works displays it.

Which 11th-century monk invented modern musical notation and the do-re-mi system of naming notes?

Guido d'Arezzo, a Benedictine monk working in Arezzo around 1025, introduced staff lines and named the notes ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la from the opening syllables of the hymn Ut queant laxis.

Which composer of verismo opera came from Lucca?

Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca in 1858 into a family that had supplied the cathedral's organists for four generations; his birthplace in Piazza Cittadella is a museum.

Which cattle breed from a Tuscan valley provides the prized beef for the Florentine steak?

Chianina, from the Chiana Valley, gives Florentine steak its beef; an indigenous belted pig is the region's other celebrated animal.

Which of these is one of the olive varieties used for Tuscan olive oil?

Moraiolo, with Frantoio and Leccino, is one of the classic Tuscan olive cultivars; its small, polyphenol-rich fruit gives Tuscan oil its peppery, bitter finish.

What is the name of the indigenous Tuscan pig breed?

Cinta Senese: 'cinta' is the white belt around the black pig's shoulders and 'Senese' means from Siena; a belted pig appears in Lorenzetti's 1338 Good Government fresco there.

Roughly what fraction of Tuscany's area is hills?

Nearly two-thirds: hills cover about 66.5 percent of Tuscany, mountains topped by the Apennines another 25 percent, and plains such as the Arno valley only 8.4 percent.

What is Tuscany's population, roughly?

3.7 million: Tuscany's population is about 3.7 million, making it Italy's ninth most populous region and, at some 23,000 square kilometres, the fifth largest by area.

Which side of politics governed Tuscany without a break from 1970 through 2020?

The centre-left: from the Communist-led councils of the 1970s to Democratic Party presidents Enrico Rossi (2010-2020) and Eugenio Giani (from 2020), the left held Tuscany throughout, the heart of Italy's 'red belt'.

How is Tuscany divided administratively?

Nine provinces and one metropolitan city: since 2015 the former province of Florence has been the Metropolitan City of Florence, alongside Arezzo, Grosseto, Livorno, Lucca, Massa-Carrara, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato and Siena.

In which year did the Black Death reach Tuscany, devastating Florence and Siena?

1348: the plague reached Pisa in January 1348 and swept Florence and Siena that spring; Boccaccio set the Decameron among young Florentines fleeing it.

Which Germanic people arrived after 572 and made Lucca the capital of their Tuscia?

The Lombards: after invading Italy in 568 they organised Tuscany as the duchy of Tuscia, ruled from Lucca, which remained the region's political centre into the Carolingian period.

Which city did the Florentine republic buy in 1421 to become its harbour?

Pisa had been purchased in 1405 and Arezzo annexed in 1384.

In what year was the Duchy of Lucca ceded to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany?

1847: Duke Charles Louis of Bourbon-Parma ceded the Duchy of Lucca to Tuscany in October 1847, shortly before he inherited Parma; Lucca's old republic had already ended in 1799.

Which daughter of Tuscany's ruling house married the future Henry II of France in 1533?

Catherine de' Medici, born in Florence in 1519, married Henry of Orleans in Marseille in October 1533; he became King Henry II in 1547 and she was later regent of France.

Which Botticelli masterpiece hangs in the Uffizi?

The Birth of Venus, painted by Botticelli around 1485 for the Medici, hangs in the Uffizi alongside his Primavera; Vasari built the Uffizi as Cosimo I's offices in 1560-81.

Which Tuscan town is famed for its soffioni, natural steam fumaroles?

Larderello: its soffioni, jets of superheated steam, powered the world's first geothermal electricity generator, built by Prince Piero Ginori Conti in 1904.

Which Tuscan airport was the busiest in 2024, with about 5.5 million passengers?

Pisa International (Galileo Galilei) handled about 5.5 million passengers in 2024, well ahead of Florence Peretola's roughly 3 million; Pisa's far longer runway takes aircraft Florence's short strip cannot.

The Tuscan comune of Badia Tedalda has an exclave, Ca' Raffaello, inside which neighbouring region?

Emilia-Romagna: Ca' Raffaello and Santa Sofia Marecchia, detached from Badia Tedalda in the province of Arezzo, lie across the border inside the province of Rimini.

Which Tuscan hill town is famous for its surviving medieval tower houses?

San Gimignano: fourteen of its seventy-odd medieval tower houses survive, earning it the nickname 'Manhattan of the Middle Ages' and UNESCO listing in 1990.

Which sea, along with the Ligurian, washes Tuscany's western coast?

The Tyrrhenian: Tuscany's coast runs from the Ligurian Sea in the north down the Tyrrhenian, with the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba the largest, lying offshore.

Which region led Italy for both tourist arrivals and overnight stays in 2019?

Veneto: Venice, Lake Garda, the Dolomites and the Adriatic beaches gave it about 71 million overnight stays in 2019, the most of any Italian region; Tuscany ranked in the top five.

Which stretch of Tuscan coast takes in Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi?

Versilia: the strip of coast in the province of Lucca between the Apuan Alps and the sea takes in Viareggio, famous for its Carnival, and the resort of Forte dei Marmi.

Which Tuscan province has the highest population density, at over 700 people per square kilometre?

Prato: at just 365 square kilometres, the province packs about 260,000 people into the textile district north-west of Florence, over 700 per square kilometre; Grosseto, by contrast, has under 50.

Which Tuscan city is home to the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, founded in 1932?

Siena: Count Guido Chigi Saracini founded the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in his palazzo on Via di Citta in 1932; its summer masterclasses and festival draw musicians from around the world.

White truffles from which Tuscan town appear in October and November?

San Miniato: the hills around this town between Florence and Pisa yield white truffles in autumn, celebrated at a national fair over the last three weekends of November.

Which Tuscan town is the centre of the region's hot-house plant industry?

Pistoia: the plain around the city is Europe's largest nursery district, with thousands of hectares of ornamental trees and plants grown for export.

The paper industry is concentrated around which Tuscan city?

Lucca: the Capannori plain east of the city forms Italy's biggest paper district, home to tissue makers such as Sofidel and to corrugated-cardboard mills.

Which Tuscan city did Florence purchase in 1384 from the French captain Enguerrand de Coucy?

Arezzo: Florence bought the city in 1384 for 40,000 florins from Enguerrand de Coucy, whose French army had seized it; Pisa followed in 1406 and Siena not until 1555.