[A] My time in Tuscany

Buonconvento, Colle Senese

My time in Tuscany has been wonderful and revealing about the region in which I’ve chosen to stay. Siena and its environs fall into the category of hill cities, perched up in their original medieval configurations on strategic crags. The towns I have gotten a chance to see, among others, include San Gimignano, Fiesole, Pienza, Mt. Oliveto, and Buonconvento.

San Gimignano

On average they are home to about 300 people, and they function as agricultural crossroads and banking hubs, much as they did in the middle ages, the Sienese golden age. Fiesole was actually the capital of the Etruscan empire, that which preceded the Roman empire and gave its name to the region.

Fiesole

Main industries are wine, olive oil, produce, and pecorino. But NOT bread. The bread is really bad- they refuse to use salt in the Sienese regions. The story has it that Pisa, a one time rival of Siena and ally of the dominant Florence, had a monopoly on the salt production in the region, and during wartime refused to ship to Siena. The Sienese, too proud for history, pretended to like the bread better without salt, and so on went the tradition.

Tuscans, San Gimignano

Tuscany does seem a bit stuck in the Renaissance, or in Siena's case the 1300s, but it is in a quaint, almost functional way. The Italian government props up what appears to be an advanced, semi-industrialized society with the appropriate grants, and Siena is rather rich because of its banking tradition. All the same, the sense is far from negative.

Piazza del Campo, Siena