The strip of Tuscany riding along the Apennines and the Emilia-Romagna border remains relatively uncrowded despite its being wedged between Florence and Pisa, favorites of guided tours. Florence's close neighbors -- Prato, with its renowned theater and friendly folk and the best cantucci in Tuscany, and Pistoia, known in the Middle Ages for its murderous tendencies but today for Romanesque churches and booming economy -- have rich histories and artistic patrimonies that can keep you steeped in Tuscan culture just a few dozen kilometers from Florence but a world away from its summer tourist traffic.
Beyond them stretches a land of genteel spas such as Montecatini Terme and tall alpine mountains buried in green forest and capped with snow. Tuscany's northern coast catches the southern extreme of the Riviera attitude in resort towns like Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi, while just inland from them tremendous peaks around the Garfagnana Valley rise jaggedly, hiding the marble of Michelangelo, a hotbed of the anarchy movement, and some of the most extensive caves in Italy.
Lucca, the region's main city, lies in the plains just south of these mountains. It is slowly topping "to-see" lists for travelers in Tuscany because it is a considerably more interesting town than Pisa (a 15-minute train ride to the south). Still, it doesn't get one-tenth of Pisa's hordes. This regally refined burg of bicyclists is home to beautiful Romanesque churches, towers, and the mightiest set of walls of any medieval Italian metropolis -- now tamed into a city park and planted with trees to shade Sunday strollers.
