Regions in Brief

Tuscany and Umbria are divided into administrative provinces based around major cities. These official designations aren't perfect for organizing a travel guide, however. Keep in mind that none of these "regions" is very large -- Tuscany is, at 23,728 sq. km (9,254 sq. miles), a bit smaller than New Hampshire, and Umbria, at 8,725 sq. km (3,403 sq. miles), makes about two Rhode Islands.

Florence

The capital of Tuscany is Florence, one of Italy's most famous cities. It was once the home of the colorful Medici dynasty, which actively encouraged the development of the Renaissance by sponsoring masters such as Donatello, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Art treasures such as those found at the Accademia (Michelangelo's David), the Uffizi Galleries (Botticelli's Birth of Venus), and the Pitti Palace (Raphael's La Velata) draw millions of visitors every year. Throw into the mix fabulous architecture (the Duomo with Brunelleschi's dome, Giotto's campanile, Santa Croce), fine restaurants and earthy trattorie, and leading designer boutiques and bustling outdoor markets, and the city of the Renaissance becomes quite simply one of the world's must-see sights.

The Chianti, Siena & The Western Hill Towns

The land of high hills stretching from Florence south to Siena is among the most famous countrysides on earth, the vine-covered Arcadia of Chianti. Here you can drive along the Chiantigiana roadway, stopping to soak up the scenery and sample the vino. Siena is Tuscany's medieval foil to the Renaissance of Florence. It's a city built of brick, with Gothic palaces, excellent pastries, and its own stylized school of Gothic painting. With steep back streets and a mammoth art-packed cathedral, it's the region's second-most popular city. The hill towns west of it -- medieval tangles of roads perched atop small mountains -- are almost as famous: San Gimignano, with its medieval stone skyscrapers; Etruscan Volterra, with its alabaster workshops; and the undervisited Massa Marittima, a medieval mining town with a gorgeous cathedral.

Lucca & Northwestern Tuscany

The Apuan Alps, along the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea, kick off a series of mountain chains that rides across the northern edge of Tuscany, separating it from Emilia-Romagna to the north. In the valley below this string of mountains sit several worthy towns little visited by most travelers rushing from Florence to Lucca or Pisa. The medieval textile center of Prato is Italy's fastest-growing city and about the friendliest town in Tuscany. Its historic core is filled with Renaissance art treasures overlooked by many who don't realize a city just 16km (10 miles) from Florence can be so different and rewarding. Its neighbor Pistoia, an old Roman town, is more firmly stamped with the art stylings of the Romanesque Middle Ages. Farther along in the Valdinievole (Valley of Mists) you'll find relaxation at Montecatini Terme, Italy's most famous spa, and Monsummano Terme, a Dantean underworld of natural "steam room" caverns hidden beneath a luxury hotel.

The elegant old republican city of Lucca is packed with Romanesque churches, livened by the music of native sons Puccini and Boccherini, and teeming with grandmothers on bicycles going shopping. Along the coast north of Lucca are Tuscany's most developed resort beaches, Viareggio and Forte di Marmi. Farther inland are the old mining towns of Massa and Carrara, from whose mountainside comes the world's most brilliant white marble, favored by Michelangelo and Henry Moore.

Pisa, Tuscany's Coast & The Maremma

This region consists of much of Tuscany's coast, from the ancient maritime republic of Pisa and its tilting tower to Livorno, a Medici-built port city and seafood mecca, and, farther down the coastline, the Maremma, Tuscany's deep south. Once a stronghold of the Etruscans, the Maremma was a swamp from the Dark Ages to the 1600s and is still a highly undeveloped region. Also covered is the old iron-mining island of Elba, once Napoleon's reign in exile and now one of Italy's more proletarian resorts.

Southern Tuscany

"Southern Tuscany" is a bit of a misnomer here, because the Maremma is technically the most southerly region. But the province of Siena stretches south to abut Umbria in a landscape of soft green hills, lone farmhouses, stands of cypress, patches of cultivated fields, and the occasional weird erosion formations known as the crete senesi and biancane. This area is postcard-perfect Tuscany. The medieval hill towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano craft some of Italy's finest red wines, and Pienza, prodigious producer of pecorino sheep's cheese, is the only perfectly designed town center of the Renaissance. If the spa waters of Chianciano Terme don't catch your fancy, perhaps you'll enjoy the ancient Etruscan center of Chiusi, with its tombs, archaeological museum, and excellent restaurants.

Arezzo & Northeastern Tuscany

Arezzo may once have been an important Etruscan city, but it's not much more than a hill town today, with some Piero della Francesca frescoes and a world-class monthly antiques market. East of Arezzo, near the Umbrian border, is Piero's hometown of Sansepolcro, a modest industrial city with an old core devoted to preserving Piero's great works. South of Arezzo stretches the Chiana Valley, where the cattle for Florence's famous steaks are raised, and the thriving art city of Cortona, which contains some of Tuscany's finest small museums.

Perugia, Assisi & Northern Umbria

Perugia, the capital of Umbria, is a refined city of soft jazz, velvety chocolates, medieval alleys, and one of Italy's top painting galleries, featuring the works of Perugino, master of the modeled figure and teacher of Raphael. Just east is one of Italy's spiritual centers, the hill town of Assisi, birthplace of St. Francis. The basilica raised in his honor is the nerve center of the vast Franciscan monastic movement and home to some of the greatest fresco cycles of the early Renaissance. Umbria gets even wilder to the north, where the rocky border city of Gubbio is home to one of Italy's wildest pagan festivals and its own quirky early Renaissance school of art.

Spoleto & Southern Umbria

Spoleto was once seat of the Lombard duchy that controlled most of Umbria in the Dark Ages, but it's most famous these days for its world-class music-and-dance Spoleto Festival. Spoleto's beautiful Duomo and the odd reliefs on its early Romanesque churches draw a small but select crowd of admirers. Moving west we hit Todi, a quintessential Italian hill town that just oozes medieval charm, and Orvieto, an implacable city of tufa rising above the valley on its volcanic outcropping, with a giant gem of a cathedral and the best white wine in Italy.