Fivizzano

Fivizzano, a walled city in the province of Massa-Carrara, Tuscany (Italy), became part of the Republic of Florence in the 15th century thus gaining the Tuscan republic an important foothold in Lunigiana, a key region which Genoa, Pisa, Milan and Florence had sought to dominate since the early Middle Ages. It is also known as "The Florence of Lunigiana" because of historical economic, cultural and political links with Florence. It is situated near Verrucola Castle, which was home to the artist Pietro Cascella until his death in May 2008.

Points of interest

• Orto Botanico dei Frignoli, a botanical garden and nature preserve

• Fivizzano Museum of Printing, located in the Palazzo Fantoni Bononi, was created by Loris Jacopo Bononi to honor the printer Jacopo da Fivizzano who printed the first books with typed characters in c.1470

• The city walls were built under instruction from Cosimo de Medici I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the middle of the 16th Century. (He created the Uffici and Boboli Gardens in Florence).

• The baroque fountain in the main piazza, donated by Cosimo de Medici III in 1683

• The birthplace/tomb of poet Giovanni Fantoni (1755-1807), called the 'Tuscan Orazio'. Better known by his Archadian name 'Labindo'

• The birthplace of the mother of Pope Nicholas V (Niccolò V: 1397-1455 - born Tommaso Parentucelli), the first Renaissance pope and founder of the Vatican Library

• The birthplace of Loris Jacopo Bononi (1929) who educated as a medical doctor later achieved national recognition in higher education, industry and literature by becoming professor of Chemotherapy and Surgery at the University of Turin, heading the Chemical firm Pfizer in Italy, making the castle Castiglione del Terziere in Bagnone and Palazzo Fantoni (now Palazzo Fantoni Bononi) leading Tuscan cultural centers and publishing three significant works which Pier Paolo Pasolini considered some of the major works of Italian 20th century literature

• The brithplace of Giancarlo Cimoli (1939) who, after graduating as a Chemical Engineer from the Politecnico di Milano went on to become the head of varied national industrial organizations including Montedison, the Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian National Railway System) and Alitalia, the national airline

• The birthplace of Sandro Bondi, (1959) the Minister of Culture in the Berlusconi government, who started out as the Communist Party mayor of Fivizzano only to later became a major figure in the conservative political parties inspired by Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia and Popolo della Liberta

• The annual 'Disfida degli Arceri di terra e di Corte' (Challenge of the Ground Archers and the Court Archers), a historical archery contest which takes place in July in the Piazza Medicea.

• The annual 'Tangoworld' festival in September - one of the largest representations of Argentinian tango in Italy