Tuscany is an important region in the north-central area of Italy. The region sprawls in an area of about 23,000 square kilometers and the population of the area is around 3.6 million. Florence is the regional capital of Tuscany. The historical importance of Tuscany could be judged from the fact that six of the Tuscan localities had been declared by UNESCO as protected sites over the years. The Florence historical center was included in the list in 1982, the Siena historical center in 1995, the Cathedral of Pisa square in 1987, the San Gimignano historical center in 1990, the Pienza historical center in 1996 and Val d’Orcia in 2004.

The population density of the region of Tuscany is only about 161 inhabitants for every square kilometer, much below the national average of around 200 inhabitants per km2. However, the cities have a better population density, with the capital, Florence, at more than 3,500 persons per km2. The other cities in this region, Livorno, Viareggio, Prato, Montecatini Terme, and Forte dei Marmi have more than an average of 1,000 inhabitants per km2. Apart from Italians, the population includes Chinese, British, and American immigrants, at about 7.5 of the population.

Due to this variation in the population density in the region, the least populated areas have agriculture as the main activity. The agricultural produce is chiefly cereals, olives, potatoes, and grapes, apart from rice, vegetables, beets, tobacco, and sunflowers produced from the previous swamplands that had been retrieved. The world famous Chianti wines are from the region of Tuscany, produced from the high quality grapes that are grown here.

In other areas, industrial activities thrive, supported by tourism and tourism-related services mainly due to the world famous beaches of the Tuscany region. Main industrial products from the region of Tuscany are glass, leather, clothing, and paper. Tuscany is famous for its rich mineral resources such as iron ore, lignite mines, mercury, copper, the large marble mines in Versilia, and soffioni or fumarole at Larderello. The steel, mining, and mechanical engineering industries are concentrated in the Livorno and Pisa coastal strip areas.

The Tuscany region consists of 8 provinces. They are Arezzo, Florence, Grosseto, Livorno, Lucca, Massa-Carrara, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato, and Siena. The population of these provinces is about 345,600, 983,100, 225,200, 340,400, 389,500, 203,500, 409,300, 289,900, 246,400, and 268,800 respectively. The population density is the lowest at 50 persons per km2 in Grosseto and the highest density is in Prato with 674.8 persons per km2. At the same time, as a total contrast, the total area of Prato province is the lowest at 365 km2, with the province of Grosseto sprawling at the maximum area of 4,504 km2.

The Democratic Party, with its center-left ideologies is quite strong in the Tuscany region, and is known as ‘Red Quadrilateral’ of Italian politics, with the other three similar parties of Umbria, Emilia-Romagna, and Marche aligning with it. In the last elections held in April 2008, the Tuscany region contributed to about 50% votes to Walter Veltroni, with Silvio Berlusconi getting only a share of 33.6% of the votes from this region.