Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A PORTRAIT OF TUSCANY
Tuscany is renowned throughout the world for its art, history
and beautiful landscape. Here the past merges with the
present to a remarkable degree, for its people pride themselves
on their heritage. Independent and combative, for centuries they
have preserved their surroundings and traditions, in which must lie
much of Tuscany's eternal fascination for the outsider.
The people of Tuscany are
fiercely proud of their ances-
try, which they trace back to
the Etruscans. Geneticists have
even discovered gene seg-
ments that are uniquely
Tuscan: there are strong
similarities between the
faces carved on Etruscan
cremation urns (see pp42-3) and
those of the people on the streets of
modern Tuscany.
Florence and its surroundings were
occupied by the Germans during
World War II, and memories of the
disgrace suffered under Fascism are
still strong. As a result, people in this
area have a fierce love of democracy
and a strong sense of obligation to
vote and participate in politics, even
at grass-roots levels, through
referendums on such issues
as whether to ban traffic from
the centre of Florence, for
example. Florentines will,
however, take the law into
their own hands, as they
did when they fought the
police in 1990 to prevent
the closure of San Lorenzo market.
The Tuscan love of home has
resulted in a strong campanilismo :
parochialism defined by the sound of
the local church bell (in the campanile
or belltower). Social anthropologists
see in it a survival of medieval inter-
city conflicts. It can be observed at
many a Tuscan festival when, beneath
the pageantry, there is a serious rivalry
between a city's different quarters.
A classic Tuscan face
captured by Botticelli
A timeless view and way of life: peaceful old age in Casole d'Elsa
 
 
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