The Tuscan landscape is familiar from a thousand Renaissance paintings. Villas are sited as if for a composition, amid a backdrop of cypress trees, vineyards, and olives. In fact the variety of the landscape is amazing, from bare clay hills to thickly wooded uplands. Within its cities are innumerable treasures. There are so many charismatic cities and towns, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Montepulciano, Pienza... and away from the main centres there are quiet villages, castles, monasteries studded amongst the hills and valleys, and, of course there is the wine. One could spend weeks discovering Tuscany.