The Spas the Nature and Culture [antikvár]

The terrifory soufh of Siena is characferised by the presence of a system of hills which extends from the Chianfi hills to Mount Cetona and separates the Valdichiana basin from the Val d'Orcia. These Iwo valleys mark the boundaries of a wonderful and distinctive region of vast woodlands areas and one which has been designated by international organisations as among the most unspoilt areas of Europe, one of the most refined centres of the civilisation of bread, wine and oil. During the late Middle Ages, throughout this zone with its notably mild climate, numerous small úrban centres began to establish themselves, clustering around a castle, a church and later even a public building, and by the 13th century the first town walls were being raised. These centres were( or later became, halting places along important lines of communication befween the north and south of Italy, travellers' inns or "spedali" on the various branches of the Iwo principal routes the Cassia and the Via Francigena, former watch towers, garrisons, hermitages or relatively safe military encampments. In fact, in both valleys and along the strip of land that remained practicable between the waters of the Chiana river and the Umbrian hills, a great number of travellers or "viatores" had travelled for centuries journeying up and down the peninsula: pilgrims on frequent trips to the holy seat of Romé, caravans of armed barbarians, "missi dominici", imperial troops, mercenaries, merchants and traders. In these parts, between Chianciano and Sarteano, what remained of the glorious Republic of Siena fought its last unfortunate battles under the command of Piero Strozzi and feli in 1559. Between Perugia and Mount Amiata, in the slender but exceptional triangle which is förmed by Arezzo, Siena and Florence, the Italian language was born: the language of Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, a language which can still be heard today in the timeless purity of the most authentic Tuscan non-dialect. And then there are the Italian poets: Jacopone, Francesco, Cavalcanti, Cecco Angiolieri. Modern painting had its birthplace here in this triangle which constitutes the heart of the physical centre of Italy. The first great masters to surpass Byzantine iconography worked here: Margaritone d'Arezzo, Coppo di Marcovaldo and Cimabue, and reaching its pinnacle with Giotto, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Perugino, Raphael, Masaccio and Piero della Francesca. Here, too, modern sculpture has its origins with the great works of Giovanni Pisano who rough-hewed the two beautiful statues of the Collegiate church in San Quirico d'Orcia. This is alsó the birthplace of the "modern town", initially extending the perimeters of the nobleman's castle to encompass a village, multiplying the towers, raising the first communal buildings, restrengthening the defensive walls and laying the first town squares. Pienza, designed by Rossellino under the patronage of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, is like a 15th-century archetype of the modern city, whereas the imposing character of Montepulciano, moulded by Sangallo, Vignola and Peruzzi, represents the 16th-century town of humanism and entrepreneurialship. In this way the civilisation sythesized and heralded by Dante stretches around this area from one town to the next and from one dialect to another in an incomparable panorama wrought entirely by the hand of civilized man. Umberto Cerroni Universitá to Sapienza, Roma