Siena

2007

Siena is an Italian town of 53 818 inhabitants, the capital of the province of the same name in Tuscany. The city is universally known for its huge historical, artistic and landscape heritage and for its substantial stylistic unity of medieval urban furniture, as well as for the famous Palio. In 1995 its historic center was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is home to the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472 and therefore the oldest bank in business as well as the longest-running in the world.

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Fucecchio. Panorama from the lookout of the city

Fucecchio is an Italian town of 23,076 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Florence in Tuscany, in the lower Valdarno.

Prato, the Cathedral

The church, with three naves, is built in white and green marble. It most likely dates back to the 6th century. It is one of the most important examples of religious architecture between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries in the region, with an elegant passage inside it between the large Romanesque-Lombard arches and the impetus of Gothic in the transept, most likely designed by the famous Giovanni Pisano , which inside will create a wooden crucifix and his last masterpiece, the Madonna della Cintola, in 1317. The relic of the sacred Cintola is kept there. The most important works are the external pulpit (built by Michelozzo and decorated by Donatello), the internal pulpit by Mino da Fiesole and Antonio Rossellino from 1472, the Madonna dell'Ulivo, the only work created together by the famous brothers Da Maiano, Giovanni, Benedetto and Giuliano. In the transept instead there are the frescoes by Filippo Lippi (in the Cappella Maggiore), one of the greatest expressions of the Italian Renaissance, the frescoes by Paolo Uccello (in the Cappella dell'Assunta), and by Agnolo Gaddi (in the Chapel of the sacred Cintola), all interior of a bronze gate made by some of the most important goldsmiths of the fifteenth century.

Fucecchio, Collegiate Church of San G. Battista

Fucecchio, Collegiate Church of San Giovanni Battista. Named after San Giovanni Battista, it stands on today's Piazza Vittorio Veneto, on the site of the ancient parish church.

Vinci. Church of Santa Croce

Of thirteenth-century origin, restored several times, it no longer retains the original structure. The neo-Renaissance style works carried out in the years 1925-1935 gave it its current appearance.

Pisa, The baptistery of San Giovanni

the baptistery of San Giovanni is one of the monuments in the Piazza dei Miracoli, in Pisa; it rises in front of the western facade of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, south of the monumental cemetery. It is the largest baptistery in Italy, and also in the world: its circumference measures 107.24 m, while the width of the masonry at the base is 263 cm (2 meters and 63 cm), for a height of 54 meters and 86 centimeters. The construction of the building began in the mid-twelfth century: "1153 mense Augusti fundata fuit haec ...", or "In the month of August 1153 it was founded ..." (1153 in the Pisan calendar corresponds to 1152). It replaces an earlier, smaller baptistery which was located north-east of the Cathedral, where the Camposanto is now located. It was built in Romanesque style by an architect who signed himself «Diotisalvi magister…» in a pillar inside the building. Later Nicola and Giovanni Pisano were also foremen of the yard, as well as Cellino di Nese. In the nineteenth century, at the same time as a renewal that affected the entire Piazza del Duomo and its monuments, the baptistery was subject to a radical restoration by the architect Alessandro Gherardesca, with interventions that led to the reconstruction of some portals and a large part of the decorative apparatus. Despite the denunciations of some intellectuals and prominent personalities of the Pisan culture of the time, such as Carlo Lasinio, the works, directed by the master builder Giovanni Storni, led to the removal of numerous sculptures by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. The statues, placed at the top of the first order above and inside the vimpergas, were replaced with works that did not imitate the medieval taste, while the original sculptures were almost all lost except for those now exhibited at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The intervention should have also extended inside, with the creation of frescoes in the central basin, but the project was not concretized and was essentially limited to the removal of non-medieval furnishings and the installation of new windows.

San Miniato. The Cathedral of S. M. Assunta

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Genesio is the main Catholic place of worship in San Miniato, the mother church of the diocese of the same name.

Vinci. Wonderful views of summer.

Vinci is an Italian town of 14 615 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Florence, in Tuscany. It is known to have been the place of origin of Leonardo da Vinci.

The Franciscan sanctuary of La Verna.

The Franciscan sanctuary of La Verna (province of Arezzo) is famous for being the place where St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata on September 16, 1224.

Lucca, Tuscany. The church of San Giusto

The church of San Giusto is a church in Lucca located in the square of the same name. The current building, built on a previous one, dates back to the second half of the 12th century.

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