3 Things You Didn’t Know about Tuscany: Part 2
We first started this series discovering little or lesser-known facts about the region so many people love, Tuscany with this post here. We are continuing this series sharing more interesting facts from around our bella Toscana so please enjoy round two of what you probably didn’t know about Tuscany, and share the article if you like it. We appreciate the support.
1. Ancient air-conditioning in Palazzo Pitti
One interesting fact that many people might not know about Florence, is that even hundred’s of year’s ago, people wanted fresh air in their homes. In this case, we’re talking about Medici Villa Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy. Because of the Boboli gardens located behind, engineers were able to move channeled breezes from the nearby Boboli gardens up to a room in the basement of the building.
From here the fresh air passed through gratings, canals, cooling tanks full of ice, finally arriving in the rooms, lowering the temperature at least 10°C. You can read more about this innovative system here (in Italian).
2. The ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa’ isn’t the only one.
The leaning tower of Pisa is one of the most visited landmarks in Italy, its telltale lean attracting fun photos from all over the world, using their hands to ‘hold up’ the tower as if it was about to finally fall. But what many people do not know, is that the leaning tower of Pisa isn’t the only one in Tuscany, and even more interesting, isn’t the only one in Pisa. There are two other towers that lean, the Campanile of San Nicola, Pisa, the Campanile of San Michele degli Scalzi, Pisa. The reason for this is because Pisa was built on marsh wetlands, which tend to shift the earth below these heavy monuments.
San Michele degli Scalzi, photo by SlowItaly
3. Tuscany has many different names to travelers, including ‘Chiantishire’ and ‘Ruscany’
So many foreigners have called Tuscany their home, with a large number of British expats concentrating around the Chianti region that produces its famous wines which has been lovingly dubbed at times ‘Chiantishire’. Now because of the large amounts of visitors from Russia, the term ‘Ruscany’ has also been thrown into the mix, and we can only see these fun nicknames increase as more and more people, call this area of Italy their home.
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