Deer species commonly sighted in Tuscany

Deer are now so common in Tuscany that they have become pest species, along with the wild boar (cinghiale, pl. cinghiali). Only twenty years ago, deer were infrequently sighted in Tuscany and even then only in forested areas or on roads through the forest. Currently, when you drive almost anywhere through the countryside at dawn or dusk, or hike through the Apennine foothills, you are likely to encounter one of Tuscany’s three primary deer species, the Roe deer, the Fallow deer and the Red deer. These Tuscan deer will be commonly sighted not only in forests but in and near vineyards where they cause significant damage by eating grapes and tearing down vines as the grape harvest approaches. With the explosion of the deer population, wolves (lupo, pl. lupi) are repopulating the cultivated areas of Tuscany. Wolves are less commonly seen in Tuscany but they are present and photos of them near populated areas appear in the news papers monthly.

A wolf photographed in Chianti, Tuscany

The Roe Deer (capriolo, pl. caprioli), Capreolus capreolus

The Roe Deer

The Roe deer is the most abundant and iconic deer in Tuscany. They are small, elegant creatures, somewhat larger than a very large goat. They have a distinctive reddish-brown coat in the summer that turns a thick, grizzled grey in winter. Look for their white rump which flashes when they bound away. They are quite shy but you’ll often spot them in the buffer zones between dense woods and open vineyards, particularly in the Chianti and Val d’Orcia regions. Younger caprioli are easily tamed and can be fed by hand. They especially enjoy freshly harvested nettles (ortica). Their "barking" alarm call is often mistaken for a dog barking but is somewhat hoarse and has a lower bark frequency than a barking dog.

The Fallow Deer (daino, pl. daini), Dama dama

The Fallow Deer

The Fallow deer is historically native to Turkey and possibly the Italian Peninsula, Balkan Peninsula and the island of Rhodes near Anatolia. During the Pleistocene period, it inhabited much of Europe, and has been reintroduced to its prehistoric distribution by humans. They are more social than Roe deer and are often seen in larger herds. They are easily recognised by their white-spotted coats (which many keep into adulthood) and the male's broad, shovel-like (palmate) antlers. They favour the coastal forests and Mediterranean scrub, such as in the Maremma Regional Park.

The Red Deer (cervo or cervo rosso, pl. cervi), Cervus elaphus

The Red Deer

The Red deer is the undisputed giant of the Italian woods. A mature stag can weigh over 200 kg - nearly eight times the size of a Roe deer. They prefer the high-altitude forests of the Apennines, specifically the Casentinesi Forests National Park on the border of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. They try to avoid humans and so are rarely seen running along side or across roads. If you visit in late September, you can hear the astonishingly loud, guttural roar of the stags echoing through the valleys as they call their females.

IMPORTANT!

When driving through Tuscany, watch for the sign below. Deer, while very attractive animals, especially when small, are also - how can I put this? - quite stupid. I have seen them many times dash through the grass along a road, parallel with a car or bus, and then suddenly turn and race across the road in front of the vehicle. You don't want to run into a deer - the damage to your car and maybe to you will be considerable.

 

More about fauna of the Val d'Elsa.

More about Tuscan wildlife and domestic animals.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Almost 500 years since the death of Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli died almost 500 years ago on 21 June 1527 at the age of 58, and yet he lives on as a founder of modern political analysis and the inspiration for the expression "Machiavellian". He was a great Florentine who is probably too narrowly identified as the author of Il Principe (The Prince) which he wrote around 1513. It was published in 1532, five years after his death. For many years, Machiavelli served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs and poetry, and he has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito

In 1494, Florence restored the republic, expelling the Medici family that had ruled Florence for some sixty years. In August 1512, the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. In the wake of the siege, Piero Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state and fled into exile. The experience would, like Machiavelli's time in foreign courts and with the Borgia, heavily influence his political writings. The Florentine city-state and the republic were dissolved, with Machiavelli then being removed from office and banished from the city for a year. In 1513, the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him imprisoned. Despite being subjected to torture, he denied involvement and was released after three weeks.

L'Albergaccio - Casa Machiavelli

Machiavelli then retired to his farm estate at Sant'Andrea in Percussina, near San Casciano in Val di Pesa, where he devoted himself to studying and writing political treatises. During this period, he represented the Florentine Republic on diplomatic visits to France, Germany and elsewhere in Italy. A wonderful letter from Machiavelli to Francesco Vettori, dated 10 December 1513, evokes Machiavelli's life in rural exile:

"When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; and at the door I take off my everyday clothes, covered in mud and dirt, and put on royal and courtly clothes; and dressed appropriately, I enter the ancient courts of ancient men, where, lovingly received by them, I feed on that food which is mine only and for which I was born; where I am not ashamed to speak with them and ask them the reason for their actions; and they, out of their humanity, answer me; and for four hours I do not feel any boredom; I forget every worry, I do not fear poverty, I am not frightened by death; I transfer myself entirely to them. And because Dante says that one does not make science without retaining what has been understood, I have noted what I have capitalised on through their conversation, and composed a pamphlet entitled Principatibus (Of Principalities, later published as in Italian as Il Principe)."

The main idea of Machiavelli's The Prince closely reflects the times in which he lived. An effective ruler must understand how to seize and maintain power rather than attain some kind of moral purity. In other words, princes should learn to rule rather than learn to be "good". As a treatise, the main contribution of "The Prince" to the history of political thought is the distinction it makes between political realism and political idealism. In contrast with Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli insisted that an imaginary ideal society is not a model that a prince should adopt. Joshua Kaplan maintains that Machiavelli emancipated politics from theology and moral philosophy. He undertook to describe simply what rulers actually did and thus anticipated the scientific spirit in which questions of good and bad are ignored, and the observer attempts to discover only what really happens.

Collected works of Machiavelli

Machiavelli was buried at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1789 George Nassau Clavering and Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, initiated the construction of a monument on Machiavelli's tomb. It was sculpted by Innocenzo Spinazzi, with an epitaph by Ferroni inscribed on it.

Machiavelli's house is now a well-regarded restaurant where the room and table where Machiavelli worked are preserved and can be visited by patrons of the restaurant.

More about Niccolò Machiavelli.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Medieval Italy during a thousand years (305-1313)

As my ever attentive and intelligent readers will know, from time to time I draw attention to books of Tuscan interest that seem to me to be unjustly neglected. I have just read and will soon reread H.B. Cotterill's "Medieval Italy".

Cotterill was born into a talented family at Blakeney, Norfolk, but spent most of his early life in Grahamstown, South Africa, where his father was Bishop. He took his degree in Classics in 1869 at St John's, University of Cambridge, where he developed an intense interest in art. He served for a time on the staff at both Harrow and Haileybury, before travelling to East Africa, inspired by Livingstone's "Last Journals" to contribute to the disruption of the slave trade there. This included transporting a steel launch in sections from the coast to the Zambesi where he explored the nothern shores of Lake Nyasa accompanied by, among others, a brother of Cecil Rhodes. After a 400 miles trek through unexplored country, he arrived safely in Zanzibar.

Soon after this he returned to England and married. He spent the rest of his life in Germany, Italy and Switzerland where he produced a number of books including a History of Greece, a History of Art, and two books on Italy, "Italy from Dante to Tasso" and the volume I'm looking at now, "Medieval Italy during a thousand years (305-1313)", published in 1915. His modest personality and residence abroad meant that he received much less attention in England than might have been expected in a man of his ability and distinction. Indeed, he does not rate an entry in Wikipedia.

This book received a rather negative though not unjustified contemporary review from Norman Parker of the University of Chicago (The School Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Apr., 1916), pp. 323-324) who complained that though there are facts in abundance, the flow of Italian history during the period covered was very difficult to discern, and that the rise of the Italian cities was hardly covered at all. However, I have a very clear idea of the flow of Italian history - what I wanted were the details, especially with regard to the Barbarian invasions following the fall of the Roman Empire - Cotterill supplies these in excellently organised abundance. No other book that I've read on the period provides more information on the origins, alliances and activities of the Barbarian tribes as they swept through Italy during the Dark Age, nor on the coeval succession of mostly appalling Popes (and not always succession - there were overlaps of up to four Popes at the same time).

If you're interested in the history of Italy during the Dark Age or Mediaeval times in general, seek out this book. It's a goldmine of recondite information written in a lucid and enthralling style.

P.S. I'm pleased to say that I've just acquired a copy of Catterill's "Italy from Dante to Tasso (1300-1600)" which answers in part the reviewer's caveat by describing the political history of Italy during the period of the expansion of the city states "as viewed from the standpoints of the chief cities".

More about Tuscany during the early Middle Ages.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2025. All rights reserved.