..:: LIVORNO ::..

	Bed & Breakfast "Le Torrette Etrusche" S.P. Pedemontana. Loc. Valle Oro Capalbio - GROSSETO www.letorretteetrusche.it
	Bed & Breakfast "Villa San Nicola" Via dei Pioppi, 40-42 Follonica - GROSSETO www.villasannicola.com
	Bed & Breakfast "Agresta" Via Italia, 9 Saturnia - GROSSETO www.agrestasaturnia.it
	Bed & Breakfast "Scotto's" Via C. Colombo, 22 Porto Santo Stefano - GROSSETO
	Bed & Breakfast "La Casa dei Carrai" Via S. Francesco, 68/B Pitigliano - GROSSETO

Livorno (archaic English: Leghorn) is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno and the third-largest port on the western coast of Italy, having a population of 170,000 as of 2004.

HISTORY

Livorno was defined as an "ideal town" during the Renaissance. Nowadays it reveals its history through its neighbourhoods, crossed by canals and surrounded by fortified town-walls, through the tangle of its streets, which embroider the town's Venice district, and through the Medici Port characteristically overlooked by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre.

Designed by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti at the end of the 16th century, Livorno underwent a period of great town planning expansion at the end of the 17th century. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress, together with the town-walls and the system of navigable canals, was then built.

Nowadays the Venice district preserves most of its original town planning and architectural features such as the bridges, the narrow lanes, the noblemen's houses and a dense network of canals which once linked the port to its storehouses. In the 18th and 19th centuries Livorno, by then grown up and open to the world, had a lively appearance marked by neo-classical buildings, town parks housing important museums and cultural institutions, Liberty villas with sea views, the market.

Some Moriscos (Muslim Spaniards forcibly converted to Catholicism) moved from Spain to Livorno in the 18th century.

MAIN SIGHTS

The Museo Mascagnano houses memorabilia, documents and operas by the great composer Pietro Mascagni. Every year some of his operas are traditionally played during the lyric music season, which is organised by the Traditional Theatre of Livorno.

Up in the hills the Sanctuary of Montenero, which is dedicated to Our Lady of the Graces, the patron saint of Tuscany, is a fixed destination for pilgrims. It is famous for the adjacent gallery, decorated with ex-voti mainly connected to stories of miraculous sea rescue.

The "Monumento dei quattro mori" ("Monument of the Four Turks"), dedicated to Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici of Tuscany, is one of the most important monuments of Livorno.

CULTURE

Politically, Livorno is one of the most left-leaning cities of Italy. The Communist Party of Italy was founded in Livorno on 21 January 1921.

There is a breed of chicken called leghorn, named after the city. This in turn gave its name to the cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn.

DIALECT

Livorno inhabitants speak a colourful variant of the Tuscan dialect of Italy named vernacolo, which is especially characterized by the popular interjection dé, which has a very wide range of meanings, usually recognizable only by the tone of the pronunciation, and a tourist is soon discovered as it if he try to use dè, because of is lack of right pronunciation.

NOTABLE PEOPLE

• Mario Ancona (1860-1931), opera baritone

• Chaim Joseph David Azulai (1724-1807), prolific Rabbinc scholar

• Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942), painter

• Giorgio Caproni (1912-1990), poet

• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (born 1920), former President of the Republic of Italy

• Piero Ciampi (1934-1980), musician

• Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944), Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs during the fascist regime

• Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908), painter

• Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804-1873), writer and politician

• Cristiano Lucarelli (born 1975), football player

• Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), opera composer

• Matteo Mazzantini (born 1976), rugby player

• Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), painter and sculptor

• Aldo Montano (born 1978), fencer, Olympic gold medalist

• Moses Haim Montefiore (1784-1885), financier and philanthropist in Britain

• Alfredo Muller (1869-1940), artist

• Armando Picchi (1935-1971), football player and manager

• Angiolo Tommasi (1858-1923), artist

• Samuel Uziel (Seventeenth century), rabbi and Talmudist

• Alberto Fremura (born 1936), artist

From: WIKIPEDIA