Impruneta

Since the 11th century, Impruneta, a large town on a plateau 15km from Florence has been noted for its terracotta pots and tiles (including those on Brunelleschi’s dome), all of which are very much on sale, especially during St Luke’s Horse and Mule Fair in October.

Basilica di Santa Maria and its icon

The fair takes place in the main piazza in the shadow of Impruneta’s pride and joy, the Basilica di Santa Maria, one of Tuscany's three great Marian shrines. It was built to house a miraculous icon of the Madonna and Child attributed to St Luke, that according to a legend first described in the 14th century, was brought to Tuscany in the 4th century by St Romolo. Romolo buried the icon to protect it from impious n'er do-wells, in a forest that gave the town its name 'within the pine woods'.

Centuries later the locals started building a chapel on a nearby hill, only to find every morning that their previous work had collapsed. A holy hermit suggested hitching a wagon of building stone to untamed oxen to see where they might travel. When they reached the site of the basilica, they knelt and refused to budge. As the men began to dig at the site, they heard a female voice come from the ground, and quickly discovered the icon.