The Places
The tour starts with the Baroque Villa Mansi in Lucca, followed by Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. Other sites include the villages of Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast, Lake Bolsano and Chianti.
The Music
The music for this journey is by Johann Sebastian Bach, who spent his life in his native Germany, but drew on influences from Italy and France in a late Baroque synthesis. The three Violin Concertos heard were written during Bach's period as Court Music Director from 1717 to 1723 at the small court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, where his duties involved secular rather than sacred music.