50 Fun Facts About Tuscany

Roughly how many visitor arrivals did Tuscany's capital record in 2018, making it the world's 51st most visited city?

Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena and Lucca are the other main tourist magnets.

Which ancient civilisation gave Tuscany its name?

Etruria became Tuscia for the Romans and eventually Tuscany.

Which red wine is Tuscany's most internationally famous?

Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano are the other big names.

What nickname has the region's best-known wine country earned thanks to its many British visitors?

Most of Tuscan tourism is concentrated in cities of art and seaside resorts.

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

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

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

They annexed the Republic of Siena in the 16th century to create the Grand Duchy, and died out with Gian Gastone in 1737.

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

France occupied it from 1808 to 1814 during the Napoleonic period.

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

He was the husband of Empress Maria Theresa, and the Lorena dynasty held Tuscany until 1860.

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

The Grand Duchy had ceased to exist in December 1859 when it joined Modena and Parma in the United Provinces of Central Italy.

How many localities in Tuscany are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

The list runs from the capital's historic centre in 1982 to a spa town in 2021.

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

It is also one of the region's most densely populated towns.

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

The prestige of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli and Guicciardini made it the language of culture for all Italy.

Which Florentine author is named as Tuscany's most notable writer?

Guido Guinizelli's canzoni became the bible of the Dolce Stil Novo that bloomed under Cavalcanti and Dante.

How many times a year is the Palio horse race run in Siena?

On 2 July for the Madonna of Provenzano and 16 August for the Assumption.

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

The seven that sat out that month the previous year are automatically in; the rest are drawn.

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

The bareback race usually lasts no more than 90 seconds on a thick layer of earth.

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

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?

Construction took 199 years, and the lean began during building because of soft ground.

Which island of the Tuscan Archipelago was the site of Napoleon's first exile?

He landed at its main port on 4 May 1814 aboard HMS Undaunted and stayed until 1815.

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

Ferries run there from Piombino on the mainland.

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

Lucca, by contrast, is the region's paper-making centre.

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

Prato does ceramics and textiles, Pistoia hot-house plants and Cascina wooden furniture.

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

Mascagni was born on the coast and Puccini and Catalani came from Lucca.

Which composer of verismo opera came from Lucca?

Siena's Accademia Musicale Chigiana is another of the region's musical centres.

Which cattle breed from the Chiana Valley provides the beef for Florentine steak?

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?

Leccino and Frantoiano are the other two named.

What is the name of the indigenous Tuscan pig breed?

Its name refers to the white belt around its black body and to Siena.

Roughly what fraction of Tuscany's area is hills?

Mountains, topped by the Apennines, cover another 25 percent and plains only 8.4 percent.

What is Tuscany's population, roughly?

That makes it Italy's ninth most populous and fifth largest region by area.

Since the regional government was set up in 1970, which side of politics has always governed Tuscany?

Legislative power sits with the Regional Council and the president is directly elected.

How is Tuscany divided administratively?

Grosseto is by far the least densely populated province and Prato the most.

Roughly what share of Tuscany's population did the Black Death eventually kill after arriving in 1348?

The capital lost a third of its people in the first six months; plague returned in 1630.

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

Later, pilgrims on the Via Francigena between Rome and France brought medieval wealth.

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

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

Until what year did Lucca remain an independent republic before joining the Grand Duchy 'by the will of its people'?

Siena had been swallowed almost centuries earlier, in 1555.

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

Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici had become Pope Leo X two decades earlier.

Which Botticelli masterpiece hangs in the Uffizi?

The Palazzo Pitti and the Bargello are the city's other great museums.

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

The subsoil also holds iron ore, copper, mercury and lignite.

Which is the busiest airport in Tuscany?

It handled 5.5 million passengers in 2024.

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

Tuscany borders Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Umbria and Lazio.

How many Tuscan villages have been selected by I Borghi piu belli d'Italia, the association of Italy's most beautiful villages?

The region also has over 120 protected nature reserves.

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

An archipelago lies offshore, with Napoleon's exile island its most significant.

Which Italian region is more popular with travellers than Tuscany, making Tuscany second?

Within Tuscany, seaside tourism accounts for roughly 40% of arrivals, alongside the art cities of Florence, Pisa and Siena.

Which resort is Tuscany's most visited seaside destination?

It sits in the Maremma, a region that, with Chianti, Versilia and the Val d'Orcia, is among Tuscany's internationally famous areas.

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

At the other extreme, Grosseto has fewer than 50 people per square kilometre, dragging the region below Italy's average density.

The composer Pietro Mascagni, of Cavalleria rusticana fame, was born in which Tuscan port city?

Siena, meanwhile, is home to the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, which sponsors the Siena Music Week.

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

Tuscan cooking prizes simplicity, built on legumes, bread, cheese, vegetables and mushrooms.

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

Other local specialisms include leather and footwear south-west of Florence, and wooden furniture around Cascina.

The paper industry is concentrated around which Tuscan city?

Heavy industry such as steel, mechanical engineering and chemicals is concentrated along the coastal strip instead.

Which Tuscan city in 1384 became the first major annexation in Florence's expansion across the region?

Pisa was bought in 1405 and a local resistance suppressed there in 1406, while Siena held out until 1555.