Private tours of Florence and Tuscany - Private tours of Chianti region

activities), began to acquire power. With the passage from the feudal period to that of the communes, Tuscia, by now called Toscana, began a long period marked by struggles between rival cities: these were the years of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, of antagonism between Florence and Pisa, between Siena and Florence. The city which gradually succeeded in coming to the fore was Florence and by the early l4th century it was the most powerful city in the region. Even proud Pisa was forced to surrender to this most powerful of Tuscan cities in 1406. With free access to the sea, Florence was now politically and economically independent. The only cities which still resisted were the small but solid republics of Siena and Lucca. During the I5th century, the Medici, rich and intelligent Fiorentine bankers, took over the power and transformed the communal status of Florence into a principality, and in the second half of the 16th century, under Cosimo I de’ Medici, it officially became the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, of which Siena and Lucca, who had also been forced to surrender, now made part. This was the beginning of a long period of great success for the region.

The opulence of Florence, which was also reflected in the other Tuscan cities, permitted the region to live the greatest period in its history. During the periods of Humanism and the Renaissance, Florence and Tuscany became the cradle of international culture. In 1737 the last of the Medici Grand Dukes, Gian-gastone, ceded the sceptre of the Grand Duchy to the Lorraine dynasty, who continued to govern with intelligence and broadrnindedness. As a result of great changes in the international scene at the end of the 18th century and of Napoleon‘s rise to power, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was annexed to the French Empire until the dictator’s fall. Then came the Risorgimento and the revolutionary movements for the Union of Italy, and in 1866 Tuscany was annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy. Five years later Florence became the capital of the new nation and remained such until 1870. At the beginning of the 20th century the population began to increase and the towns started lo develop; these were the years tormented by the «social question»: the vindications of the workers, the birth of fascism. In World War II, Tuscany took an active part in the struggle for liberation and when the war was over initiated a reconstruction activity which led to industrialization.