A new digital app designed to help visitors explore Tuscany’s Medici villas and gardens, together with nearby cultural and landscape attractions, has been presented by the regional government in Florence.
The application connects the 14 Medici villas and gardens included in the UNESCO World Heritage site “Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany”, offering interactive maps, themed itineraries and practical travel information aimed at encouraging sustainable tourism.
The app allows users to explore routes linking the villas with surrounding towns, historic sites and natural areas. Suggested itineraries include Alta Versilia, Florence and the Mugello area, Medici villas in and around Florence, and the Montalbano hills.
Visitors can also access opening times and site information, plan journeys using public transport in real time, and check details on route length, travel times and difficulty levels for walking and cycling itineraries.
The project was developed as part of the initiative “Medici Villas and Gardens: a network connected through sustainable mobility”, in collaboration with the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence and digital company Net7. It was funded by Italy’s Ministry of Culture with co-financing from the Region of Tuscany.
Regional culture councillor Cristina Manetti said the aim of the initiative is to make Tuscany’s Medici villas better known and more accessible, while also promoting slow tourism through walking itineraries and practical visitor information.
The app is available free of charge through major app stores and on the official UNESCO site for the Medici villas and gardens: villegiardinimedicei.it
The UNESCO serial site “Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany” was added to the World Heritage List in 2013 and includes 14 residences and gardens built or transformed by the Medici family between the 15th and 17th centuries.
According to UNESCO, the villas and gardens represent an important model of aristocratic rural residences developed during the Renaissance, combining architecture, landscape design, political power and cultural patronage. The Medici estates influenced villa design across Italy and later throughout Europe, helping shape new ideas of leisure, art and the relationship between buildings and the surrounding countryside.
(Cover photo: Artimino villa near Florence)
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