Regions in Brief

The Valdarno

Montelupo Fiorentino -- The old SS67 and a newer superhighway link ancient rivals Florence and Pisa down the industrialized Arno valley. Along the way, the road passes through the village of Montelupo Fiorentino (www.comune.montelupo-fiorentino.fi.it), famous in the 15th and 16th centuries for producing some of the Mediterranean's finest ceramics as well as the father-and-son sculptor/architects Baccio and Raffaello di Montelupo. Today, the village is worth a brief stop for Botticelli's Madonna Enthroned with Saints in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, on Via Baccio di Montelupo (daily 9am-8pm) and the Museo Archeologico e della Ceramica, Via Sinibaldi 43 (tel. 0571-51-352; www.museomontelupo.it). The latter is an eclectic small-town collection of archaeological finds, 15th-century frescoes, and a detailed exhibit on ceramics production. It's open Tuesday through Sunday from 9am to 6pm, and the ticket (5€/$6.50 adults, 3.50€/$4.55 children 6-14 and seniors over 65, free for children under 6) also gets you into Empoli's Museo della Collegiata di Sant'Andrea and Vinci's Museo.

Empoli -- The modern market town of Empoli gave forth in 1551 a talented baroque painter christened Jacopo Chimenti but known by the name of his hometown. The town today manufactures green-glass chianti jugs and raincoats for the rest of Italy. Although World War II bombs wreaked havoc on much of the town, the historic main piazza, Piazzetta della Propositura, is still graced with the Collegiata di Sant'Andrea, an 8th-century church with a harmonious green-and-white Romanesque facade. The facing is original 12th century in the bottom half, but the top was finished off in a seamless imitation style in the 19th century; even that had to be rebuilt following World War II damage.

The inside doesn't live up to the exterior, but its Museo della Collegiata di Sant'Andrea, Piazza Prepositura 3 (tel. 0571-76-284), entered through the courtyard to the right, certainly does. It was one of Tuscany's first community museums when it opened in 1859, and the collections include a Bernardo Rossellino 1447 font, a detached Masolino Pietà fresco (1424-25), a Francesco di Valdambrino polychrome wood statue of St. Stephen (1403), a tiny Filippo Lippi Madonna, and works by Lorenzo Monaco, like his 1404 Madonna dell'Umilità with Saints. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9am to noon and 4 to 7pm, and the ticket (5€/$6.50 adults, 3.50€/$4.55 children 6-14 and seniors over 65, free for children under 6) is also valid for the Montelupo's ceramics museum and Vinci's Museo Leonardino .

Vinci -- Leonardo fans can jog east to take a 9km (5 1/2-mile) detour north to visit his hometown, Vinci. The village honors the original Renaissance man with a minuscule Museo Leonardino, Via della Torre 2 (tel. 0571-56-055), in the 13th-century castle of the Guidi counts. It has no original Leonardos but does contain models of some of the machines he invented and reproductions of his drawings. It's open daily from 9:30am to 6pm (until 7pm in summer), and the admission (5€/$6.50 adults, 3.50€/$4.55 children 6-14 and seniors over 65, free for children under 6) is also valid for museums in Montelupo and Empoli. You can also see the baptismal font where he was baptized in Santa Croce church and drop by the Biblioteca Leonardina, Via Giorgio la Pira 1 (tel. 0571-56-540), preserving copies of anything printed relating to Leonardo. The biblioteca is open Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 7pm. Hike or drive 3km (2 miles) up the hill to the tiny hamlet of Anchiano to see Leonardo's modest birth house (free admission; open Mar-Oct daily 9:30am-7pm, Nov-Feb until 6pm).

San Miniato -- More diverting than Vinci is a trip southeast of Empoli to the other major town of the Arno valley, San Miniato. The tourist office is at Piazza del Popolo (tel. 0571-418-739; www.sanminiatotartufo.it and www.comune.san-miniato.pi.it; June to mid-Sept daily 9:30am-1pm and 3:30-7:30pm; in winter Mon-Sat 9am-1pm and 3-6:30pm, Sun 10am-1pm and 3-7:30pm). The hilltop Old Town of this large village is famous these days mainly for its kite-flying championships (the weekend after Easter) and the white truffles hiding under the soil of the surrounding valley. San Miniato's long history, though, puts it as a former outpost of the Holy Roman Empire and countryside seat of emperors from Otto I to Frederick II. The latter left the town a 1240 Rocca (rebuilt entirely after it was bombed in World War II), the taller remaining tower of which rises gracefully above the village and the shorter of which serves as the bell tower for the Duomo.

On Piazza del Castello is the Duomo, open daily from 8am to 12:30pm and 3 to 6:30pm. Few of its original 12th-century Romanesque features remain, save the facade, unusually inset with ceramic North African bowls. A few of those bowls have been removed and are kept next door in the Museo Diocesano (tel. 0571-418-071), along with a Sienese school Maestà, a Neri di Bicci Madonna and Child, a Verrocchio terra-cotta bust of the Redeemer, and some baroque works upstairs. Admission is 2.50€ ($3.25). Summer hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 1pm and 3 to 6pm and winter hours Saturday and Sunday from 9am to noon and 2:30 to 5pm. The town's other worthwhile church is San Domenico, Piazza del Popolo, which contains works ranging from 14th-century Masolino-school frescoes to early-20th-century Art Deco frescoes. It's open daily from 8:30am to noon and 4 to 7pm (3-7pm in winter). The church of San Francesco, Piazza San Francesco, also has some frescoes in the style of Masolino and is open daily from 8am to 12:30pm and 3 to 6:30pm.

A Central Tourist Office

The Ufficio Turistico Intercomunali, Via della Torre 11, 50059 Vinci (tel. 0571-568-012; fax 0571-567-930; www.terredelrinascimento.it), is the central tourism office for Vinci, Montelupo Fiorentino, and Empoli. In summer, it's open daily from 2 to 7pm; winter hours are often shorter. Montelupo Fiorentino maintains its own info point at Via Sinibaldi 43 (tel. 0571-518-993; fax 0571-911-421), open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 6pm.