The villages of Tuscany come complete with Castles Chianti and Charm.

And on top of the hill, where I saw maybe the most beautiful suns that I've ever seen in Tuscany,

there is a 14th century village.

Coming up, we'll hear the best things about living in Tuscany, where rivalries from the Middle Ages still echo on today's soccer fields.

The Sienese fans are chanting to the Florentines Rikordate Montaperti.

Remember Montaperti, remember that time in 1260 when we beat you.

And a paleo-memologist reminds us of the spectacular creatures that once occupied the places we live and visit long before any tourist showed up.

People know about Komodo dragons from Indonesia, but a very close relative, but very much larger, lived in Australia,

about 40,000 years ago. This was a huge, huge monster, maybe 30 feet long.

It's all in the hour ahead on Travel with Rik Steves. Come along.

Hey, I'm Rik Steves. In my latest book for the love of Europe, I share the highlights of a lifetime of exploring Europe.

My favorite experiences, sights, and encounters in a hundred essays.

If you love Europe too, this is four decades of greatest hits in 400 pages, made to order to stoke your travel dreams.

You can order your copy of For The Love of Europe at RikSteves.com.

There were stranger creatures than you can ever imagine roaming the earth until maybe a few thousand years ago,

like lemurs, the size of gorillas, and 500 pound birds.

Coming up a little later in the hour on today's Travel with Rik Steves,

Ross McFee from the American Museum of Natural History tells us what they've learned about the megafauna.

So many people are so crazy about Italy.

And in Italy, you've got all of these distinct regions and provinces that are just, they got their own personality.

And for a lot of people, the quintessence of Italy is Tuscany.

I want to learn more about Tuscany, I want to learn about the villages of Tuscany, I want to learn about the hill towns, I want to learn about the cuisine.

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