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2009 
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The unique and intimate experience of viewing a medieval city at roof height by "walking the wide Lucca wall" will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Nicholas Hogg, Sydney, Australia
About Italy
M0re about the regions of Tuscany, Liguria and the Veneto
About Tuscany
Renowned for its art, history and evocative landscape, Tuscany is a region where the past and present merge in pleasant harmony. Hill towns gaze across the countryside from on high, many encircled by huge fortress walls and slender cypress trees. Handsome ‘palazzi’ (palaces) testify the region’s wealth while medieval town halls indicate a long-standing tradition of democracy and self-government.
Florence – Lucca – Pisa - Sienna, are names from Italy’s most well known cultural region – these are cities that allow history and tradition to live on. Volterra – San Gimignano or, just a solitary farm amidst the olive groves and cypress trees, nestled within the gentle rolling hills. Tuscany is a land filled with culture, tradition and the celebration of life, a land with a variety of riches. It cannot be painted in a single stroke, for each city and village has its own particular ‘colour’. There is Florence, a stronghold of the Renaissance, Sienna, which bears witness to the Gothic epoch, and Lucca, with its proud Roman heritage. These are only a few of the delights on a journey through Tuscany.
Northern Tuscany starts at the plain between Florence and Lucca and is dominated by rich, cultivated lands between the cities and mountain areas and flows on to meet the Mediterranean coast and major centres of Pisa and Livorno. Among the vineyards and olive groves there are small villages and farms together with large fortified villas and castles.
Lucca in Northern Tuscany
In the fruitful garden that is Tuscany, the city of Lucca remains the centre of attraction for romantics. It has the feel of an island, isolated from the world outside by a massive wall surmounted with gardens and towering plane trees. Originally of Ligurian-Etruscan heritage, the city was later inhabited by the Romans, and in the 17th Century, became a principality under the rule of Napoleon’s sister, Elisa. Today’s Lucca offers the visitor a mix of small streets and historical plazas, a cathedral taken straight from your ‘romantic’ handbook and an ancient Roman amphitheatre. Rising on every street are the facades of medieval houses, each of which seems to outdo its neighbour in originality.
Beyond the walls of the city, in provincial Lucca the tranquillity, elegance and charm continues across diverse landscapes from the sea to the mountains, and verdant plains and terraced hills. The mountain area of Garfagnana follows the river Serchio with a panorama of breathtaking landscape and mountain villages, and further into the mountains there are ski fields in Abetone and wonderful national parks. Following the Lucchese wine trail through the ‘colline’ (hills) one can sample the best DOC wines in heart of the wine region, and at the same time visit the many sumptuous Villas and their amazing gardens. And only minute’s way is the glittering blue Mediterranean on the Versilian coast.
Versilia
This strip of coastland in northern Tuscany is especially popular for vacations due to its mild climate throughout the year. As a backdrop to the beaches, the Apuane Alps, the vineyards and olive groves, and the famous white-marble quarries of Carrara provide a contrasting silhouette.
Viareggio is a main beach resort in Versilia and famous for its Carnivale festival in February each year. Viareggio contrasts its ancient fishing port, where you can still dine on fishermans’ fare, with a luxury yachting marina. Set in the hills behind the Versilian Riviera is the towns of Camiore and the medieval fortress of Pietrasanta, now a centre for artists, sculptors and musicians. A short trip north brings you to the quarries of Carrara. Artists from Michelangelo to Henry Moore have carved priceless sculptures from Carrara marble, five hundred thousand tons of which are extracted every year.
About Liguria
Sharing her border with Tuscany, Liguria is a long thin coastal strip nestling at the foot of vine-covered mountains. Here pastel-coloured houses bask in the Mediterranean 
sun, while their gardens, flourishing in the mild climate, are a riot of colour. In contrast with resorts like Portofino and San Remo, the bustling city of Genoa, for centuries a trading port of immense power, is the only major population centre - and the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.
Liguria divides neatly into two parts. The western coastline, known as the Riviera Potente, is a thin strip of coastal plain stretching across to the French border, whilst the eastern coastline, of Riviera Levante is more rugged and picturesque, descending directly into the sea. The magic of the tranquil coastal villages like the Cinque Terre and Portovenere and the elegant resorts of Santa Margherita and Rapallo, enjoy the bight blue sea in front of them and the vast rugged mountain ranges behind them.
The Cinque Terre (The Five Lands)
The five villages of the Cinque Terre are built along a sheer rocky coastline with terraced hills and vineyards sloping steeply down to the sea. Only two of these villages can be accessed by road and are connected by centuries old footpaths and mule tracks about 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea. Each village has its own character, and they are only a few minutes apart by train or motor launch if you don’t feel like walking this well-worn track. As you enter these characteristic, pastel painted villages and wander through their narrow streets and dine on their traditional fare and wine, it feels like time has stood still in this tranquil small part of the world.
