ecoexplore_tuscany

In 1764 Cesare Beccaria wrote the "dei delitti e delle pene" essay as a denounce to the fact the state, which was condemning the homicide in its judicature, was using itself as a punishment. With this essay, Cesare Beccaria was condemning the death penalty.

Twentytwo years later Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany following Beccaria's ideal abolished the death penalty in Tuscany. It was the 30 of November 1786, and Tuscany was the first state ever to cancel this cruelty.

Since then, 30 of November is considered Tuscany's day.

In the middle of all those poetic colours while hiking in Tuscany it's easy to find stones like this. They're signing the border between a territories called micro-regions since the Roman period and during the whole medieval ages. This one it's in my micro-region, Mugello. 😉

Didyou know the wine windows? They're all over the tuscany. In Florence in the historical center there are 145, but who knows in the 1500s how many there were 🤔

Today they are all, or almost (then I'll explain), closed.

The wine makers had them built on the side of their houses doors, or at least near them, to sell the wine, sometimes the unsold one, to the wanderers and passers-by for a few coins. But how did the sale work? Cause today as you know we go to a winery, in Chianti (Chianti classico wine), or in val d'Orcia (Brunello wine), or to Rufina (Chianti Rufina) and we get explained the aging, the conservation, the color, the aftertaste, you look at the year, the shape of the soil, the type of barrel in which it has been aged, how many years, or months, various accompaniments, and so on cause I'm finishing the characters (for the most refined) , then someone goes to the supermarket and looks at the price.

In the 1500s, however, the aforementioned wanderer took the fiasco from home and had it filled, without much pretensions.

According to some historians, however, these windows started a real parallel market. Leftover meals were also sold trough them and in some it was also possible to make offers to be distributed later to the poors.

As I said, almost all of them are closed. There are those who have walled them leaving just the shape on the wall, those who have used them to put the door bell in it and those who have put the post box. But there are those who still use them 😉

Hello there! I'd like to introduce you Venus Italica 😌

This beauty,made by Antonio Canova os housed in the Pitti Palace, in Florence of course.

But why do we have it here?

Everything started when Napoleon invaded Tuscany in the very first yeas of the nineteenth century. He took another Venus, the one called "Venere dei Medici" a greek wonderful statue acquired by cardinal Ferdinando de Medici to decorate the family villa in Rome.

Napoleon wanted to compensate Tuscany by giving us a brand new Venus and he commissioned to Canova a Venus which should have been identical to the one he stolen. Antonio Canova, conscious of his value refused to make a copy of someone else's work, that's why he made a completely different one, but following the myth of "Venus pudica".

You should see it in person to realise how beautiful it is!

Tuscany? Yes!

Tuscany is more than Florence, more than Siena, more than the leaning tower of Pisa and way more than Michelangelo's David.

Here for you one of the oldest monasteries of this unique region.

Vallombrosa monastery, it has its origins in the far 1008 and the Benedictine monks are still taking care of it. Plus, it is in one of the most natural protected areas of the region.

Perfect if you like to hike and dip your self in nature 😉