This book shows how the seemingly immutable Tuscan landscape was largely shaped by modern conflicts over economic resources and cultural meanings.

Dotted across the ancient Tuscan landscape of rolling hills, olive groves and towering cypress trees, sit some of the greatest country houses of Italy. Here, Professor Carlo Cresti and the photographer Massimo Listri present buildings by such noted masters as Sangallo, Buontalenti and Peruzzi.

Insight Guides: all you need to inspire every step of your journey. From deciding when to go, to choosing what to see when you arrive, this is all you need to plan your trip and experience the best of Tuscany, with in-depth insider information on must-see, top attractions like the Florentine churches to the medieval towns of Siena and San Gimignano, and hidden gems like the unspoilt beaches of the Maremma. Insight Guide Tuscany is ideal for travellers seeking immersive cultural experiences, from exploring Tuscan hill towns to discovering the region's famed villas and gardens In-depth on history and culture: enjoy special features on Renaissance art, Tuscan cuisine and the Chianti Wine Trail, all written by local experts Invaluable maps, travel tips and practical information ensure effortless planning, and encourage venturing off the beaten track Inventive design makes for an engaging, easy reading experience About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

Art, Gender and Religious Devotion in Grand Ducal Tuscany focuses on the intersection of the visual and the sacred at the Medici court of the later sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries in relation to issues of gender. Through a series of case studies carefully chosen to highlight key roles and key interventions of Medici women, this book embraces the diversity of their activities, from their public appearances at the centre of processionals such as the bridal entrata, to the commissioning and collecting of art objects and the overseeing of architectural projects, to an array of other activities to which these women applied themselves with particular force and vigour: regular and special devotions, visits to churches and convents, pilgrimages and relic collecting. Positing Medici women’s patronage as a network of devotional, entrepreneurial and cultural activities that depended on seeing and being seen, Alice E. Sanger examines the specific religious context in which the Medici grand duchesses operated, arguing that these patrons’ cultural interests responded not only to aesthetic concerns and the demands of personal faith, but also to dynastic interests, issues of leadership and authority, and the needs of Catholic reform. By examining the religious dimensions of the grand duchesses' art patronage and collecting activities alongside their visually resonant devotional and public acts, Sanger adds a new dimension to the current scholarship on Medici women’s patronage.

One of the country's top food writers draws on her years of Tuscan living to uncover the essence and origins of this unique region's authentic home cooking in a marvelous collection of 100 recipes. Eight-page color photo insert. 25 photos.

This work counters historiographies that search for the origins of modern science within the experimental practices of Europe’s first scientific institutions, such as the Cimento. It proposes that we should look beyond the experimental rhetoric found in published works, to find that the Cimento academicians were participants in a culture of natural philosophical theorising that existed throughout Europe.

Essays by well-known travel writers--including Frances Mayes, Jan Morris, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, and Ferenc MbtT--guide readers through the beautiful, sun-baked hills of Tuscany in search of friendly locals, breathtaking scenery, scrumptious dining, and award-winning wine. Original.