Economy Villas in Tuscany Lucca Tuscany is known for its wines (most famous of which are Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano), and has 120 protected nature reserves. Other agricultural products include Chianina cattle (origin of the famous "Fiorentina" steak) and the production of olive oil, principally in Lucca and the surrounding hills.Villas in Tuscany Lucca The industry comprises factories producing Piaggio cars, motorcycles, scooters and aeroplanes, the texile industrial district of Prato, the petrochemical plants of Leghorn and the steel factories of Piombino. Tourism is the economic backbone of the so-called "Cities of Art" (Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, Cortona, Pienza), as well as on the coast and in the isles (Elba). Marble is quarried in the Alpi Apuane (Carrara, Versilia and Massa), in Garfagnana and in Lunigiana.

The Renaissance See also: Italian Renaissance Villas in Tuscany Lucca Tuscany is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance movement, and its artistic heritage includes architecture, painting and sculpture, collected in dozens of museums in towns and cities across the region. Perhaps the best-known are the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Bargello in Florence. Tuscany was the birthplace of Dante Alighieri ("the father of the Italian language"), Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Modern Era Villas in Tuscany Lucca In the 1400s, the rulers of Florence, the Medicis, annexed surrounding lands to create modern-day Tuscany. The War of Polish Succession in the 1730s, however, ended in the transfer of Tuscany from the Medicis to Francis, the Duke of Lorraine, who would become Holy Roman Emperor. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon, Villas in Tuscany Lucca Tuscany was inherited by the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, namely, the Austrian Empire. With the Italian Wars of Independence in the 1850s, Tuscany was transferred from Austria to the newly unified nation of Italy.