Montecatini Terme- a gem in Tuscany

Montecatini alto connected by a Funicular

Our hotel- Montecatini Palace

Fountain in town

Main streets are filled with tourists

Main squares has live music playing

Shopping area is popular at night

Montecatini Terme is an Italian municipality in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany. The town is located at the eastern end of Piana di Lucca and is a draw for for tourism, as well as industrial and commercial industries related to the spa, which in turn has increased the interest in hotel accommodation in the region.

Montecatini Castello, corresponding to the modern Montecatini Alto, grew in the Middle Ages on a hill commanding a marshy area. A spa already existed in the village, being mentioned in 1340 document. In 1315 it was the seat of the Battle of Montecatini. In 1339 the area was conquered by the the Republic of Florence. Cosimo de' Medici built a bridge to cross the marshes, but also had the castle dismantled.

The current spa town grew after the land reclamation program of Duke Leopold II  in the late 18th century.it is charming and filled with many beautiful hotels with spa accommodations. We stayed in the Montecatini Palace which was lovely, The spa was amazing and I treated myself to two services!! The town is a tourist town with trendy restaurants and lots of shopping. the main streets are jumping in the evenings- live music in some squares.

Pitigliano- Little Jerusalem

Scenery from Pitigliano

Hilltop towns dot Tuscany

 

Hill Town View in Tuscany

Aquaduct in Pitigliano

Typical street in Pitigliano

Synagogue in Pitigliano

Pitigliano is a town in the province of Grosseto, located in Tuscany. The quaint old town is known as the little Jerusalem, for the historical presence of a Jewish community that has always been well integrated into the social context and that has its own restored synagogue.

Pitigliano and its area were inhabited in Etruscan times but the first extant written mention of it dates only to 1061. In the early 13th century it belonged to the Aldobrandeschi family and by the middle of the century it had become the capital of the surrounding county.

In 1293 the county passed to the Orsini family, signalling the start of 150 years of on-again/off-again wars with Siena, at the end of which, in 1455, a compromise of sorts was reached: Siena acknowledged the status of county to Pitigliano, which in exchange placed herself under the sovereignty of Siena.

From then onwards the history of Pitigliano resorbs into the gradually wider ambit first of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany  (1562) then of the united  Kingdom of Italy.

For several hundred years Pitigliano was a frontier town between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and, to the south, the Papal States.  For this reason, the town was home to a flourishing and long-lived Jewish community, mostly made up by people fleeing from Rome during the Counterreformation    persecutions. Jews of the town used one of the caves for their ritual Passover matzah bakery, the "forno delle azzime" described in detail in Edda Servi Machlin's "Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews." After the promulgation of racial laws under Nazi influence, all the Jews of the town reportedly escaped capture with the help of their Christian neighbors. Although there are almost no Jews left in town, not enough to provide a minyan, the synagogue (1598, with furnishings of the 17th and 18th centuries) is still used from time to time. It was restored in 1995.

Visiting Siena, Italy

Siena is one of Italy's best-preserved medieval towns, located in the heart of Tuscany. Built on three hills and surrounded by well-preserved walls, Siena is filled with fine examples of Gothic architecture and has one of the world's most unique piazzas- Piazzo del Campo (shaped like a shell with scalloped edges). Siena, with its uniquely preserved medieval architecture, satisfies every art lover and many others as well. From tiny piazzas shared by you and a couple of pigeons to stately 14th and 15th century buildings, there is always something to notice and admire. Limited traffic within the city center enhances your experience and adds to the feeling of stepping back in time into a medieval world. I also enjoyed the small shops around the Piazza for shopping and still have the pottery I bought there.

Umbria, Italy- Todi and Spoleto

Todi is a picturesque medieval hill town with storybook charm in the southern part of Umbria, 40 minutes from Spello on the way to Rome. It is near the Tiber River, overlooking the Tiber Valley. It is surrounded by medieval, Roman and Etruscan walls. Although it's a hill town, its center at the top of the hill is flat. The central piazza, originally the Roman forum, has several beautiful medieval buildings. Sights are close together and there are good places to linger, enjoying the views and the ambiance. Todi photographs are bottom three images.

Spoleto, one of the largest towns in southern Umbria, is a hill town in Italy famous for its summer music festival, Festival dei Due Mondi, with interesting Roman, medieval, and modern sights. It was inhabited in prehistoric times and the lower parts of its wall are from the 6th century BC. Spoleto is a walled town built on a hillside with most of the sites in the compact upper town. Above Spoleto is a medieval Rocca and spanning the deep gorge to one side of the Rocca is Spoleto's most famous sight, Ponte delle Torri or Bridge of Towers (Photograph third from top.) Spoleto photographs are top three images.

Photographs are from the web.