Life

Food, wine, art and beautiful countryside – it must be Tuscany

The beauty of Botticelli, fine wine, country walks and a luxury spa: Tuscany delivers it all, writes Sean Sheehan

You have to avoid cultural fatigue in Florence by rationing what to see and how long to immerse yourself in galleries, churches and museums
You have to avoid cultural fatigue in Florence by rationing what to see and how long to immerse yourself in galleries, churches and museums You have to avoid cultural fatigue in Florence by rationing what to see and how long to immerse yourself in galleries, churches and museums

LIFE is not fair and Tuscany, with its embarrassment of riches, is living proof of this. Florence alone is blessed with so much precious art that half of it could be doled out around the rest of Italy and there would still be too much to see on one trip to the city. You have to avoid cultural fatigue by rationing what to see and how long to immerse yourself in galleries, churches and museums.

If it’s your first time then the Uffizi Gallery gets priority, particularly the room where The Primavera and The Birth of Venus are both displayed (and never allowed to leave). Paintings by Botticelli and Piero della Francesca, all floral dresses and poignant faces, will leave you swooning.

Colours like the ultramarine blue pigment, made from crushing lapis lazuli rock, will mesmerise and arrest your attention. Mind you, at certain times of the day when the light is just right, Florence, with its walls painted in yellow ochre and burnt sienna, becomes one huge Renaissance canvas in 3-D.

You’ll discover your own favourite art places but a contender has to be the Dominican monastery of San Marco and its extraordinary cycle of frescoes by Fra Angelico. They decorate the monks’ cells, transforming them into a boutique dormitory, and the artist’s Annunciation is as sublime a painting as you’re likely to see in a city teeming with exquisite works of art.

Then there is The Accademia gallery, mostly visited for a single piece of art which you’re probably seen copies of – the sculpture of David by Michelangelo – but which in the original will astonish. Carved out of a single four-metre block of stone, the sheer bravura of the result is breath-taking when seen as close quarters. As with the Uffizi, tickets are best booked in advance.

Every rose has a thorn and Florence’s is its popularity; it's a city packed into a small space where sooner or later you’ll need to escape the winding lines of tourists trailing behind their tour leaders. Cross any of the bridges above Ponte Vecchio and here, on the south bank of the River Arno, you’ll find Via Santo Spirito.

This is, relatively, a sightseeing-free zone and although the bars and restaurants are popular the atmosphere is relaxed at places like Il Santo Bevitore. It’s a spit-and-sawdust kind of place, with footpump-operated washrooms and a vaguely rustic appeal, affordable and fun. Keep an eye open for the way bottles of wine are fetched from the ‘cellar’.

Se Sio (sixth floor) is a neat rooftop restaurant, 10 or so minutes away from the city centre on foot. Contemporary, pizza-free Italian food (two courses with a glass of wine about £25) and heavenly views of the Arno and its quaint bridges. Accommodation is squeezed into beautiful old buildings where window views and designer decor make up for small and boxy bedrooms.

The Lungarno Collection runs the gamut from the classical-style Lungarno hotel to the more airy Continentale, where rooms look down on the Ponte Vecchio, and the ultra-modish Gallery Hotel Art with the cool and arty Fusion bar and restaurant.

Next door to an Irish theme pub, the Fiddler’s Elbow (where a pint of the black stuff is €6.50), there is a chic hotel, JK Place with wooden panelled ceiling, ornate marble fireplace and an armchair with a cashmere plaid casually thrown across it. The hotel is situated within an 18th-century townhouse and its pavement bar and restaurant deserve a visit even if you’re not staying there.

There are good reasons for talking a local train from Florence and heading south through the Tuscany countryside to the town of Chiusi-Chianciano From here a 40-minute taxi drive takes you to the tiny town of Bagno Vignoni, a place far from the madding crowds of Florence. It developed around thermal waters in a large basin, the original sulphurous source being volcanic in nature, that occupies what would otherwise be the town square.

B&Bs, bars and small restaurants are to be found here and sitting by the thermal waters while sipping a Chianti allows the healing properties of the minerals in the water – I’d like to believe – to somehow infuse the body and work their life-enhancing miracle. Bellissimo.

This region, Val d’Orcia, is famous for its wines and hot springs – with a hotel where both of these can be enjoyed in relaxed comfort – and there are waymarked walks and cycle trails criss-crossing the land.

On the hillsides can be seen solitary lines of cypress trees, quintessentially Tuscan and looking just like those in the Renaissance paintings you left behind in Florence.

I walked from Bagno Vignoni to San Quirico, which could take from 45 to 90 minutes depending on how long you dawdle to admire the yellow broom, rock and eglantine roses, borage, wild garlic and a vineyard that line the route.

San Quirico, with its medieval walls intact has a 16th-century garden for picnics, churches to explore and shops for purchasing local products like cold cuts, Pecorino cheese and jam and wine.

WATER AND WINE

AT ADLER Thermae hotel and spa (adler-thermae.com), a five-minute walk outside Bagno Vignoni, you will find a regular pool for swimming in but what’s special are the pools where the temperature stays around 360C, courtesy of warm spring water which at its source underground is 520C.

There are also three different types of sauna -- the best of which is made of olive tree wood – plus a steam bath, a salt bath and a clay bath. The gym and spa menu could keep you busy for days at a time in between a daily sport and fitness programme which packs in yoga, pilates, Nordic walking, bike tours and walking trips.

The various packages include use of all the facilities and activities (except spa treatments), breakfast, afternoon buffet and à la carte dinners. The hotel is children-friendly with a kids club for four-year-olds and above, a children’s pool and arrangements for their meals.

The best local wines carry the Orcia DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin) appellation, referring to vineyards on an area of land that follow a stretch of the Orcia river.

The red wines are highly rated, using the Sangiovese grape variety, and while Brunello di Montalcino is the most famous there are other less expensive ones like Poggio Grande. Adler Thermae have twice-weekly wine tastings.

FACT FILE:

:: Vueling Airlines (vueling.com) flies direct to Florence airport (Pertola) from Dublin and London Stansted. From the airport buses run every half hour into the city.

:: Vehicular traffic is restricted in Florence, which makes walking the most efficient way of getting around. Tickets for trains to Bagno Vignoni can be booked online at trenitalia.com

:: www.italy.artviva.com provides art tours by experts as well as fun and food tours. The Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour is rewarding if you’re short on knowledge.

:: The Pocket Rough Guide Florence (Rough Guide) is invaluable for navigating around the city.

:: Restaurants and bars: Il Santo Bevitore (ilsantobevitore.com); Se Sio (sestoonarno.com ); The Fiddler’s Elbow (thefiddlerselbow.com)

:: Accommodation: Lungarno, Continentale and Gallery Hotel Art (lungarnocollection.com). JK Place (jkplace.com)