The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect's use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy.

[8] The main tourist spots are Florence, Castiglione della Pescaia, Pisa, San Gimignano, Lucca, Grosseto and Siena.

[10] Roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north, Marche and Umbria to the east, and Lazio to the south and southeast.

Surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains and with few (but fertile) plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture.

Following this, at the beginning of the Iron Age, the Villanovan culture (c. 900 – c. 700 BC), regarded as the oldest phase of Etruscan civilization,[14][15] saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms.

[16] The Etruscans (Latin: Tusci) created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art.

[19] One reason for the eventual demise of this civilization was the increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans.

[17][18] Soon after absorbing Etruria (to the north, northeast, east, and a strip to the south), Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace.

[17] The conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions supporting the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries, split the Tuscan people.

[17] The two factions gave rise to several powerful and rich medieval communes in Tuscany: Arezzo, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Siena.

The Medici family became extinct in 1737 with the death of Gian Gastone, and Tuscany was transferred to Francis, Duke of Lorraine and husband of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, who let the country be ruled by his son.

Under Benito Mussolini, the area came under the dominance of local Fascist leaders such as Dino Perrone Compagni (from Florence), and Costanzo and Galeazzo Ciano (from Livorno).

Following the fall of Mussolini and the armistice of 8 September 1943, Tuscany became part of the Nazi-controlled Italian Social Republic and was conquered almost totally by the Anglo-American forces during the summer of 1944.

Tuscany has an immense cultural and artistic heritage, expressed in the region's churches, palaces, art galleries, museums, villages, and piazzas.

[26] Painters such as Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence and Tuscany, as well as Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, renewers of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, forefathers of the Renaissance; Ghiberti and the Della Robbias, Filippo Lippi and Angelico; Botticelli, Paolo Uccello, and the universal genius of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

It became the language of culture for all the people of Italy, thanks to the prestige of the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.

[29] Tuscany has a rich ancient and modern musical tradition, and has produced numerous composers and musicians, including Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni.

Arezzo is indelibly connected with the name of Guido d'Arezzo, the 11th-century monk who invented modern musical notation and the do-re-mi system of naming notes of the scale; Lucca hosted possibly the greatest Italian composer of Verismo, Giacomo Puccini together with Alfredo Catalani, while Pietro Mascagni was born in Livorno; and Siena is well known for the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, an organization that currently sponsors major musical activities such as the Siena Music Week and the Alfredo Casella International Composition Competition.

A school of imitators of the Sicilians was led by Dante da Maiano, but its literary originality took another line – that of humorous and satirical poetry.

The sonnets of Rustico di Filippo are half-fun and half-satire, as is the work of Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, the oldest humorist we[who?]

Love is blind to blasons but not to a good heart when it finds one: when it succeeds it is the result of the spiritual, not physical affinity between two souls.

Guinizzelli's democratic view can be better understood in the light of the greater equality and freedom enjoyed by the city-states of the center-north and the rise of a middle class eager to legitimise itself in the eyes of the old nobility, still regarded with respect and admiration but dispossessed of its political power.

[citation needed] Guinizelli's Canzoni make up the bible of Dolce Stil Novo, and one in particular, "Al cor gentil" ("To a Kind Heart") is considered[by whom?]

His Tesoretto is a short poem, in seven-syllable verses, rhyming in couplets, in which the author professes to be lost in a wilderness and to meet with a lady, who represents Nature, from whom he receives much instruction.

Francesco da Barberino, a learned lawyer who was secretary to bishops, a judge, and a notary, wrote two little allegorical poems, the Documenti d'amore and Del reggimento e dei costumi delle donne.

[11] In Tuscany 80% of tourism demand is concentrated in cities of art and seaside resorts, the rest is divided between the countryside, hills, and mountains.

In 2019 the municipalities with the relatively higher percentage of presences, in descending order, are: Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia, San Vincenzo, Orbetello, Grosseto, Siena, Bibbona, Viareggio, Capoliveri.

[35] Tuscany has many small and picturesque villages, 29 of them have been selected by I Borghi più belli d'Italia (English: The most beautiful Villages of Italy),[36] a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest,[37] that was founded on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities.

As of 2008[update], the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT estimated that 275,149 foreign-born immigrants live in Tuscany, equal to 7% of the total regional population.

Tuscany is a stronghold of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), forming with Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Marche the so-called Italian political "Red Quadrilateral".