Foreign Guide Spotlights Tuscany as Top 2026 Destination

Quartz, the US-based business and lifestyle publication, published a guide this week to the best places to visit in Italy in 2026, giving prominent placement to Tuscany. The article notes that Florence 'works as a base for day trips into Tuscany, since regional trains reach Siena, Pisa and the Chianti wine region in under two hours.' The guide also singles out Florentine food culture, describing the bistecca alla fiorentina as a thick-cut, bone-in steak served rare and priced by weight, and schiacciata as a flatbread sold from small bakeries rather than sit-down restaurants.

The timing of the endorsement comes as Tuscany braces for another peak summer season. International news outlets have repeatedly reported on the strain of overtourism on Florence's historic centre, where visitor numbers in recent years have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, crowding the Uffizi Gallery and the Piazza della Signoria. The Quartz guide, by promoting exactly these attractions, adds to the cycle of coverage that both sustains the regional economy and fuels debates about sustainable tourism.

Foreign travel journalism has long treated Tuscany as synonymous with the Italian idyll. The Quartz article joins a steady stream of international features that sell the region's postcard landscapes, Renaissance art and wine routes. The guide specifically recommends the Chianti region, a stretch of hills between Florence and Siena that produces some of the world's most recognised red wines. The mention reinforces the global market for Tuscan wine, a sector that accounted for a significant share of Italy's wine exports according to industry data widely cited in foreign trade reports.

But the same international coverage that drives bookings also documents the downsides. The Guardian and the New York Times have in recent years run dispatches on the hollowing out of Florence's historic centre, where residential apartments are converted into holiday lets and artisan workshops give way to souvenir stores. A 2025 feature in the Guardian described the city at peak season as 'a museum without walls, where locals feel like extras on their own stage.' The Quartz guide, for its part, does not address these strains, presenting a purely aspirational portrait.

The regional government in Tuscany has attempted to manage the influx through measures such as restricting short-term rentals in historic districts and promoting lesser-known hill towns. Foreign press coverage of these efforts has been mixed, with some outlets praising the initiatives and others noting that enforcement remains patchy. The Quartz article, by steering readers to Siena, Pisa and Chianti, spreads the visitor pressure beyond Florence itself, which may align with the region's aim of dispersing tourism revenue.

Culinary tourism forms a central plank of Tuscany's draw. The Quartz guide's detailed description of bistecca alla fiorentina and schiacciata reflects a broader trend in international travel writing: food is now often the primary motivation for itineraries. Foreign food and wine media regularly profile Tuscan producers, from Chianti Classico estates to olive oil mills near Lucca. The region's agricultural identity, however, faces climate pressures. Recent heatwaves and drought conditions, covered extensively by international wire services, have reduced olive yields and pushed grape harvests earlier, though the Quartz article does not mention these risks.

For the foreseeable future, Tuscany will continue to occupy a privileged place in foreign readers' imaginations. The Quartz guide is just the latest example of how the region is packaged abroad — as a seamless blend of art, landscape and cuisine, accessible by train from a single base. The challenge for those who live and work here is to preserve the reality behind that postcard, a tension the foreign press both feeds and, occasionally, analyses.