Introduction

Tuscany is a region in Central Italy. It has an area of 22,990 square kilometers (8,880 sq mi) and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence.

Coverage area1	Coverage area 2

Tuscany is known for its beautiful landscapes, its rich artistic legacy and vast influence on high culture. Tuscany is widely regarded as the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and has been home to some of the most influential people in history, such as Petrarch, Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Amerigo Vespucci and Puccini.

Due to this, the region has several museums, most of which (such as the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace) are found in Florence, but others in towns and smaller villages. Tuscany has a unique culinary tradition, and is famous for its wines (most famous of which are Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino).

Six Tuscan localities have been designated World Heritage Sites: the historical center of Florence (1982), the historical center of Siena (1995), the square of the Cathedral of Pisa (1987), the historical center of San Gimignano (1990), the historical center of Pienza (1996) and the Val d'Orcia (2004). Furthermore, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves. This makes Tuscany and its capital city Florence very popular tourist destinations, attracting millions of tourists every year. Florence itself receives an average of 10 million tourists a year by placing the city as one of the most visited in the world (in 2007, the city became the world's 46th most visited city, with over 1.715 million arrivals).

I highly advise our readers to visit the Wikipedia link below as the information above is only the tip of the iceberg on the information available on the linked page.
(Reviewer’s Note: As a young man I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Tuscany and came away a changed man. There are no words that adequately describe the sights, sounds and essence associated with that region. It was an honor to review this amazing freeware title and in doing so, brought back a lot of great memories).

(Source-Wikipedia)

Installation & Documentation

Manual

This product is freeware and available from AussieX.org. The downloaded zip file comes in at 1.024GB.

The package includes the area of Pisa, Viareggio, Torre del Lago, Versilia coast until the Liguria region boundary. It also covers the wonderful Apuan Alps area. Elba, Pianosa and Capraia beautiful islands.

A few highlights are:

• 1M Resolution for all areas except the Apuan Alps
• 76-m FSX Terrain Mesh for the Apuan Alps, Italy, developed by Holger Sandmann.
• Photo realistic textures
• Excellent night lighting
• Spring and summer seasons
• Beautiful lakes, rivers, farms, rural areas
• 3D Cities and harbors

• Much more…

Tuscany North and default texture borders

There were several developers who contributed to this scenery. I’ll list each along with the scenery area they designed.

• All high quality graphic details by Maurizio G.
• Miracles' square in Pisa developed by Dario Bortot
• The castle of Malaspina, in Massa developed by Loreno Venanti
• The Isle of Elba and surrounding islands developed by Antonio C.

After unzipping the downloaded file you are left with three Exe files. One for the mesh, one for Tuscany and one for Elba Island. Just run each one and remember to activate the scenery through FSX and that’s it!

Once successfully installed, your new Tuscany region will take your breath away and keep you thinking…WOW this is really freeware?

Documentation consists of one 9 page PDF manual (562KB). There are three PDF manuals, one for each area, but they area all the same document with different names. The manual is written in English, Italian and Spanish. The manual covers what areas are included with images and text, and recommended settings within FSX for using this scenery.

One thing I would like to point out is that the developers’ native language isn’t English, and the English portion of the manual reflects this. Funny thing about translations… sometimes the translated text better defines the intended meaning than English does itself.

Take for instance this sentence from the manual: “Its inclusion in a commercial or other freeware product is morally incorrect and it's FORBIDDEN for this reason.” What could be truer than words “Morally Incorrect”? Thank you Maurizio and team for those great words.

Textures

I’m still trying to find the correct words to use in describing this scenery package. Completely amazing and beautiful don’t seem to be good enough. The textures are excellent and exceeded every expectation I had prior to installing the package.

Every type of geography imaginable is here, from the coastlines to the mountains and everything in between. There was no attempt to blend the borders of the Tuscan North scenery and the default textures because they are planning expansions and their energy is better spent on the new areas and not blending the borders. I happen to agree.

Keep in mind this is a mesh and ground texture package so no airport buildings were added or reworked.

Since pictures tell the story with color and beauty, below I’m going to add a gallery of images from Pisa to Viareggio, including a few beaches along the way. Following that I’ll add some images if Elba Island.

Pisa Airport	Warm Italian Beaches	Excellent field textures
Nice Harbor	Look at those amazing textures	Those are vineyards below
A little bit of snow left	Realistic valleys	A quiet Italian village

Now on to Elba Island. This picturesque area is so beautiful, and the culture so rich, you could spend years there and never learn all there is to know.

Night Textures

Maurizio G spent a lot of time perfecting the night textures and I can say he did an exceptional job. I’ll add some screenshots from around the region at dusk and night.

If you look close, the stadium is lit	Lights on the beach	Tuscany at dusk
The sun dipping below the horizon	Night falls over Elba	Party time on the beach

Support

I didn’t require any support so I can’t tell you from personal experience, but AussieX has a great reputation for exceptional support and I can’t see any reason why that would change with this product.

Performance

I didn’t detect any performance issues on my system.

Summary / Closing Remarks

This is by far the best freeware scenery package I’ve ever seen. It’s better than several commercial products on my system and I highly recommend this scenery to everyone. Its area is a bit limited but certainly acceptable and enjoyable. With upcoming expansions in the works, this is the very best rendition of this beautiful region.

Printing

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Tuscany North

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