Archive for February, 2009
What to do in Florence
Giotto's campanile, Florence
It’s easy to get overwhelmed in a city like Florence when you touch down for the first time. A top-10 hitlist is a great way to ease the inevitable sight-anxiety, and one of these days I’ll get round to writing one. While you’re waiting, check out the Top 10 Things to Do in Florence at WhyGo Italy.
Of course, I disagree with many of them. For starters, I never leave town without at least one trip up to the Romanesque basilica of San Miniato al Monte. The place is one of Florence’s (rare) contemplative corners, and plugs right into my love of all things pre-Renaissance. I blame Ruskin’s The Nature of Gothic (well worth a read, by the way, for anyone interested in Tuscan architecture).
Visiting (and discussing) Florence is like that. It’s impossible to agree on the ‘best bits’, and no matter how long you’ve allowed for your stay, you’ll depart with the feeling you’ve missed something amazing—and you probably have. But you can always come back.
A year in Tuscan festivals
February’s here, which means it’s almost time for Viareggio’s Carnevale. The Tuscan seaside town hosts the second-most important Mardi Gras event in Italy after Venice—and it all starts tomorrow, with costumed float parades every Sunday until March 1st. If you haven’t booked your accommodation yet, you’ve probably left it too late (but try the Viareggio tourist office). There’s a smaller Carnevale, aimed more squarely at children, in Arezzo, the Carnevale Aretino Orciolaia.
Corpus Domini parade, Orvieto, Umbria
Far from peaking here, February marks the first month in a busy Tuscan festival calendar. If I was planning to attend one a month, my year might look something like this.
March
Head down to Pitigliano, in the Maremma, for the Torciata di San Giuseppe, on the 19th. A torchlit parade along ancient Etruscan tufa paths concludes with the burning of a wicker man in the town square to welcome spring. More information from the Pitigliano tourist office.
April
Aside from the obvious Holy Week and Pasqua celebrations all over Tuscany, I’d pop over the border to Umbria for Coloriamo I Cieli, a balloon and kite festival held around Castiglione del Lago on the western shore of Lago Trasimeno.
May
Ascension Day in Florence sees the annual Festa del Grillo (the Cricket Festival) in the Parco del Cascine, alongside the Arno. Though it’s not quite the same since the city banned the use of real crickets in 1999, it remains one of the city’s traditional family days out.
June
Tuscany goes festa-mad in June, and among plenty of choice I’d probably make for Pisa for San Ranieri. On the evening of the 16th, a whole stretch of the Arno is lit up with 70,000 candles, the luminara, followed by fireworks before midnight. More information from Pisa’s tourist office.
July
There’s only one place to head in July: to Siena, for the Palio. The day itself can be unpleasantly packed, so I’d adopt one of two strategies. Either go for the costumed practice days in the run-up to the main event on the 2nd (they usually begin on June 29th). Or head into Siena on the day after and book yourselves a hotel inside the winning contrada (Siena’s tourist office will help on that one). You’re guaranteed dress-suit parades, traditional songs, impromptu celebrations and all the rest of it, as the winners rub everyone else’s noses in it—all night, every night.
August
Instead of Siena’s second (and marginally more important) Palio, on the 16th, high summer would probably take me to Montepulciano. The Bravio delle Botti, an uphill giant-barrel-pushing race between the town’s quarters, takes place on the penultimate Sunday. Which doesn’t sound like much, unless you’ve ever tried to walk up that hill in August.
September
As summer comes to an end, it’s time to toast the harvest at the Rassegna del Chianti Classico, in Greve-in-Chianti. Buy a glass in the square and wander the stalls sloshing sipping away. A number of wine-themed excursions and events cluster round the Rassegna in early September.
October
It’s back to southern Tuscany in late October for Montalcino’s Sagra del Tordo. If you’ve even wondered what spit-roast songbirds taste like, washed down with Tuscany’s finest red wine (Brunello), now’s your chance to find out.
Things (thankfully) start to slow down from November. By now, I’m thinking I’ve probably earned the rest.
Florence and Umbria accommodation openings
Right about now, with the northern hemisphere shivering, is a fine time to be making accommodation plans for a Tuscany trip in 2009. So, you might be interested to hear that a few new options have appeared just in time.
The brand-new, luxurious Town House Palazzo Vecchietti opened its doors in January, in a spot handy for the cafes of Piazza della Repubblica or the designer shops of Via de’ Tornabuoni. Giambologna renovated the palazzo in the 1580s; prices are as you’d expect for an inn with such a pedigree. (UPDATE: There’s more on the Vecchietti here.)
Seriously upscale visitors to Florence have another reason to be cheerful: the frescoed Renaissance Palazzo della Gherardesca has morphed into the Four Seasons Firenze after a lengthy restoration. It’s on Borgo Pinti, just a little outside the heart of the action.
For a quieter hotel experience, the Palazzo Seneca in Norcia (Umbria) has had a boutique-style revamp and now offers a wellness spa and fine local cuisine. Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, is home to Umbria’s famous black truffle, and sits on the edge of the Monti Sibillini national park.
Finally, if you’re looking for a villa in Tuscany and have a decent budget to play with, the Conde Nast Traveler blog has some sound advice for places to begin your research online. Budget travellers, especially anyone banking in sterling, might want to re-check my Budget Guide to Tuscany that The Times ran last summer. You’ll find some fine accommodation alternatives.
When it comes to Tuscan lodging, you don’t have to be rich to book round here, but it sure helps.
