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bed and breakfast tuscany
bed and breakfast Tuscany
A bed and breakfast
is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation
and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Typically, bed
and breakfasts are private homes with fewer than 10 bedrooms.
Tuscany is the land of hospitality. Here, tourists,
travellers and visitors are treated to an embarrassment of riches. They
can travel, visit and stay overnight with the certainty of having a
unique experience. The region boasts beaches, mountains,
spas, artistic centres and countryside—but also cultural tours and food
and wine itineraries. Rich and varied
propositions—between art, culture, nature, spas and landscapes—an
exclusive holiday in an area just waiting to be discovered.
Enjoy your stay as much
as possible in one of Italy's most beautiful locations, thanks to the
comfort and convenience of bed & breakfast: a stay in a
B&B lets you appreciate not just the beautiful scenery of the area,
but also get to know the traditions and secrets of the place, thanks to
the hospitality and willingness to please of the local people.
Have a great holiday in Tuscany.
The council of Radicondoli rises on the
metalliferous hills that overshadow the Val di Cecina, on the boundary
between the provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Pisa. At a height of 500m
above sea level it has a population of 1,000 inhabitants
The
territory of Radicondoli is divided into numerous villages and its
economy is based on the hot springs and a large number of agritourisms and bed and breakfast.
In this council you can admire the Elci castle, the convent of St.
Francis and the parish of St. Simon. The castle of Radicondoli,
along with that of Belforte, has been here since the beginning of the
13th century but its parish seems to date back to the 10th century, so
it is very probable that an inhabited settlement around today’s capital
town may have been established even before the year 1000AD. There was
human presence here even in the Etruscan-Roman times, but the
subsequent medieval installation completely deleted it. We can only
hypothesise that, being annexed to Volterra during the Roman era, the
territory of Radicondoli was first at the centre of Scipione’s
politics, who used that area as a Naval reference point, and then
involved in the struggles between the Romans and Etruscan aristocracy
from the 1st century BC.
The community of Radicondoli seems to have
been one of the first to give itself a real autonomous, civic
organisation, through which it stipulated pacts and conventions with
Siena and the Aldobrandeschi counts.
And it was these who, in 1216,
incorporated it as a fief into their properties. Five years later the
castles of Radicondoli and Belforte were offered as a guarantee to
Siena, as a mortgage on the pact of loyalty that the counts had sworn
to the city. Far from having reached an agreement in this way, the
council and the feudatories disputed the territory that was occupied by
the Siennese in 1230 and then taken back by the Aldobrandeschi seven
years later, renewing the oath of loyalty that had previously been
broken.
In the second half of the XIII century the Siennese mortgage
on the two castles was eliminated. For a brief time, between 1260 and
1269 they were occupied by the Guelphs who forced Siena to buy them
back.
Subsequently, with the Aldobrandeschi ramifications, the two
fortresses finished at the centre of a conflict for possession between
the two new families. In 1541 the council became part of the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany under Cosimo I de’ Medici.
Black cats and bad luck
Superstitions in Massa Marittima
(near Colli di Travale) south Tuscany.
Traditions, superstitions and magic in one of the most beautiful towns in Italy
In Tuscany and in all of Italy, August is the month everyone goes on
vacation. Not everyone, to be honest, but the majority of Italians
still choose August for their vacations. And so the cities empty out
and stores are closed and the public offices slow down to a snail's
pace. The custom, so typically Italian, of everyone going "to the
beach", can be inconvenient. But, believe me, at the same time, it has
many advantages.
An experience in Tuscany helped us understand many
things.
We were near the city of Massa Marittima, a jewel of a place in
southern Tuscany, when we thought we would stop for a few minutes to
see the sublime Piazza del Duomo. On our way, we passed the city walls
and entered into the semi-deserted city and saw a small group of elders
sitting out on the street near the Duomo. All of a sudden, one of them
stood up and yelled at us to stop. "What is it?", I answered,
practically scared. The elder answered, "It's bad luck!!". At the
moment, I didn't understand and then I remembered that a black cat had
just crossed the street before us. We hadn't given it much thought. We
approached the elders, confessing that we didn't believe in
superstitions. "Me either!" the elder confessed, "but you never know!".
We exchanged a little bit more conversation and then they offered us a
chair and poured us some wine asking us how it was. "Good!" we said and
we stayed there until late into the night with them. The topic of
conversation, naturally, was of superstitions which we believed no
longer existed or had never even heard of. They warned us to never
leave our hat on the bed, or spill oil on the floor, or worse yet,
salt- seven years of bad luck. Leaving silverware crossed on the table
can help to decrease the amount of bad luck you have. It's considered
terrible to hear the howling of an owl at night or to have dreamed
about water. "Per Venere e Marte, non si sposa, non si parte, ne' si da
principio all'arte" is a well-known phrase in Italian which means, "On
Tuesday and Friday, you don't marry or depart, and don't start any big
projects". On the contrary, it is good luck to see a spider at night,
to spill wine on a tablecloth and excrements are actually considered
symbols of money! Even more complex and sometimes cruel superstitions
include: feeding the heart of a swallow to a child to make him more
intelligent or putting pins in a toad's heart to cause pain to an
enemy. I'll stop here even though the list is endless. When we got in
the car to go home, it was pitch dark out and the quiet atmosphere of
the town, the words of the elders, and the wine all became a part of
the past.
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