Spend a wonderful New Year’s Eve relaxing at one of the many wonderful Tuscan thermal spas. You will be surprised by wonderful shows and entertainment accompanying your hot bath in the beneficial and relaxing waters of these beauty centers immersed in nature. You are sure to meet a very unusual way of celebrating the beginning of a new year, however a very pleasant one, which will bring you in a romantic dimension made of soft colors, warm feelings, delicate scents, exotic tastes and invigorating treatments. You will spend this special night suspended in time, far from the chaos and frenzy, surrounded by lulling sounds. You will only be disappointed that wherever you are at, this magical experience will come to an end, eventually.
Read more at: Experience Tuscany
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{Photography © 2009 by Toscana Enterprises Corporation, all rights reserved}
ROME: A moderate earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale shook the central Italian region of Tuscany on Monday, prompting scared residents to rush into the streets, geologists and reports said.
The earthquake struck at 22:04 pm (2004 GMT) and its epicentre was around 30 kilometres northeast of Florence, the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology said on its website.
No damage was immediately reported, according to ANSA news agency.
But several residents ran out of their homes while others hunkered down in their cars in the cities of Borgo San Lorenzo, Scarperia and Barberino, the report said.
The quake was felt in Florence and Bologna.
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{Photography by James Temple}
Il Giardino dei Tarocchi or The Garden of Tarot is a sculpture garden based on the esoteric tarot created by Niki de Saint Phalle in Tuscany (Italy) during the late 1970′s.
Enjoy the photos (more info at the bottom)
Crown of the Empress (photo by Mararie)
The Moon: Face (photo by Mararie)
The Empress (photo by Mararie)
The World (photo by Mararie)
The Moon (photo by Mararie)
The Lovers + Casper & Esther (photo by Mararie)
The Star (photo by Mararie)
The Sun, Temperance (photo by Mararie)
The Top of the Hierophant (photo by Mararie)
Stars and Planets (photo by Mararie)
The Magician (photo by Mararie)
Official Web Site: Il Giardino dei Tarocchi
Location: Garavicchio in Capalbio, Province of Grosseto (Italy)
ALMOST any connoisseur of the world’s great coasts falls hard for Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi. They’re freakish collisions of rock and sea, and the stretch of shoreline they straddle in southern Italy’s Campania region is the geography of pure fantasy.
The northern Italian region of Liguria, too, has its breathtaking dreamscapes, where mountain halts only at ocean’s edge — around Portofino and the Cinque Terre, for instance. Travelers are forever singing their praises.
But there’s no such song for Forte dei Marmi, no such swoon over Viareggio, both in Tuscany. That’s where my friend Jeremy and I were going, and he had a single, understandable question.
“Why?” he asked. (Read more at: NYTimes.com)
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{Photography © 2009 by Toscana Enterprises Corporation, all rights reserved}
Massa Marittima is a quaint small town perched on the coastal hills of Tuscany.
From Wikipedia: “The town appeared in the early Middle Ages, the bishopric seat of Populonia being moved here around 1000 AD. After the initial domination of the Republic of Pisa, it became an independent commune in the 13th century. In the following century it was conquered by Siena, to which it belonged until it became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the mid-16th century.” Pop 8,779.
Visiting Massa Marittima is a pleasure of the senses, especially visually since your experience will be unfolding between the hillside and the open ocean, equally distant, and equally beautiful.
But it is the artisan-made objects that have withstand the test of time, that offer a glimpse across the present and the past, humble witness of events and rites of passages of multiple generations. The doors of old buildings often give us a glimpse of the culture of the nation or city where we find ourselves, Parisien doors are quire remarkable and different from Milanese doors, and the Massa Marittima doors are a pure example of coastal Tuscan style, a mix of stoic and understated elegance, making a statement of time with substance and very little frills.
This is random sample of the doors of Massa Marittima, enjoy!
Clean, stately, and solid: what a statement!
Shiny, so old that it had to be painted.
Yours truly, reflected on the bronze knob, polished to perfection.
A timeless young and jovial look
A bit tired, almost austere, it shows the wear of a lot of friends coming to visit. I bet they cook excellent pasta!
Don’t you feel like a Count or a Baron lives here? The Count of Massa Marittima?
And this is the Count’s Father.
So beautiful it deserves a second look.
And the more modern interpretation, still wood and brass, still ready ti withstand the test of times to come.
Bonus: view of the windows
Bonus #2: art deco beach towel drying in the wind
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{Photography © 2009 by Toscana Enterprises Corporation, all rights reserved}
