Tuscany, the most important region in central italy (see map under italy), where it is known as Toscana. Today Tuscany is at the centre neither of Italy’s economic life nor of its political life, but it is the region which formed Italy’s language, its literature, and its art, and has thus assumed a central place in the country’s culture and self-image. The landscape, immortalized in the work of artists from Giotto to Michelangelo and part of every European’s cultural baggage, has remained largely unchanged to this day: a succession of hills and valleys covered with cypresses, umbrella pines, olive groves—and vineyards.
