Some words have the power, in the space of a few letters, to stop us in our tracks.

Normal sentient beings can be rendered inarticulate, misty-eyed romantics as they savour the exquisite memories or deeply cherished dreams these words evoke.

Such a word is Tuscany.

One of the oldest bastions of western civilization, this north western Italian province has become synonymous with art, culture, beauty and bella vita -- the art of living well. Pisa, Florence, Raphael, Michelangelo, DaVinci and the Medici all played their parts in transforming Renaissance Tuscany into a crucible of human achievement so unique in history that even today it leaves us breathless.

Over the centuries, as its fortunes waxed and waned, Tuscany endured -- the more weathered and worn, the more majestic and magnificent. As we seek antidotes to the increasing mechanization of our schedules, surroundings and innermost selves, the wisdom of the heirs to the ancient Etruscans resonates deeply: live well.

In late August of this year, with friend Dan Rothenbush, it was our good fortune to find ourselves on the way to the wedding of one of my daughters in the Tuscan seaside town of Quercianella, some 20 kilometres south of the port of Livorno.

I almost always take my golf clubs when I travel, even if I don't have a tee time booked anywhere in advance. Most airlines treat golf clubs as sporting equipment, so it doesn't affect your baggage allowance and it's the unexpected little gems you often run across that can make a trip more memorable still.

We took the clubs.

After landing in Frankfurt, we picked up a rental car and made our way through the rain in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland on our way to Italy, loading and unloading the clubs as we went, denied an opportunity to play by the elements.

By the time we arrived in Quercianella, the sun was finally out but pre-wedding activities began to take precedence on the schedule -- family gatherings, rehearsals, and trips to Pisa and Florence left a narrow window of opportunity to squeeze in a round.

Golf is no stranger to Italy. The Ugolino Golf Club in Florence, founded in 1889, lays claim to the oldest club in the country and the Rome Golf Course at Aquasanta, founded in 1903, is the oldest continuously played course.

Today there are almost 30 golf courses in Tuscany and if you're going to that part of Italy a little research will help you add a round or two to make your trip even more memorable.

Between Quercianella and Pisa there are two courses located in Terrenia, a resort town on the Mediterranean north of Livorno: the nine-hole Golf Club Terrenia and the 18-hole Cosmopolitan Golf and Country Club.

On the morning of my daughter's wedding we had time for nine holes and stopped in at the Cosmopolitan. With the help of our friend Mattia in the clubhouse, we were on the tee within about half an hour or so, though we had not booked in advance.

Voted best new course in Italy in 1993, the Cosmopolitan is a thoroughly enjoyable facility. There is a resort hotel, two enormous swimming pools, fully stocked pro shop, tennis courts, restaurant, bar and more. Guests staying at the resort also have access to the Cosmopolitan's private beach about a kilometre away.

Designed by David Mezzacane, whose works include the Fioranello and Parco De Medici courses near Rome, the 6,045-metre Cosmopolitan course takes advantage of the undulating, duney coastal landscape to give you a round where water, wind and sun all combine to give you plenty of challenge.

Water comes into play on 11 holes with a series of small lakes and a network of canals crisscrossing the course and ratcheting up risk-reward calculations. Fortunately, on the front nine almost all of the water is on the left side so those of us with a natural slice have a chance to stay dry.

The water also provides an environment for the local castorino population to thrive and raise their young. An herbivorous beaver-like aquatic mammal, castorini can be found in and around some of the larger water hazards and are best left undisturbed.

The relatively flat landscape can also, in the finest traditions of links-style golf, make the wind a serious factor. With the sea only a few hundred yards from the course gusts and breezes rolling in from the Mediterranean are an almost constant presence. That day, however, the air was still and at 35 degrees C some wind would have actually been welcome.

One of the big adjustments for non-Europeans is calculating the distances. Measured in metres, the figures on the scorecard usually mean an adjustment of a club more per shot to hit the greens in regulation.

The course began with a 486-metre par-5. The broad, rolling fairway curved gradually right along the driving range to a rather small green. It was a very good introduction to the course and an opportunity to get the feel of the terrain.

Fairways were in excellent shape and greens were tightly manicured and held their line well. The rough was thick and very grabby. Even though temperatures earlier in the month had been well into the 40s, the vegetation was lush and well cared for.

After the first three holes we started to get the hang of distances and attacked pins with growing confidence. Lack of familiarity with the course yielded to the sheer exhilaration of golfing the Tuscan lowlands.

We made good time playing as a twosome, but noticed a lone golfer gaining ground on us. He caught up with us on the sixth tee.

Tony had been to Canada and sang the praises of British Columbia's natural splendour. It had been many years since his visit and it was his hope to return again.

We in turn tried to convey how truly impressed we were with Tuscany's combination of respect for its heritage and generous willingness to share the secrets of its success with the rest of us.

After exchanging compliments on the beauty of our respective homelands, he played through and was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Tony was almost nonchalant about Tuscany's charms. I suppose it's only natural that when you are constantly immersed in something remarkable it loses its exceptional quality and becomes part of the furniture.

For us, the ancient landscape stood in stark contrast to the world we knew: here buildings and byways stood for centuries, evolving over time with the people who used them, giving those people a firm sense of place and a stake in the fate of the culture.

It was true that the Cosmopolitan Resort was a new development, but it fit in a context that also had room for weathered castles on distant hilltops and came from a tradition of palazzo architecture that stretched back, visibly, to the Romans.

At home, our obsessive-compulsive building up and tearing down created employment and freed us up to shift quickly as opportunity arose, but in some ways we were the poorer for having no touchstones to our past, brief as it was. Our culture had become almost hydroponic, random and rooted in nothing but a self-perpetuating momentum to recreate.

Tuscany's great gift to the world was reminding us in ways large and small that there was more to life.

I looked around at pine and cypress trees and caught scents from the rosemary and laurel bushes lining the fairways which, combined with the salty ocean air, produced an almost culinary aroma.

The finishing holes on the front and back nines were both long par 5s that ended with a carry over water to greens beside the one of the resort's pool areas.

Walking off the ninth green, the sound of church bells from nearby Terrenia drifted softly in on a light breeze -- adding a dimension of sound to the quietly stunning scents and images, creating a moment as close to sensory perfection as anything I had experienced.

Yet one more lay ahead: walking my daughter down the aisle of the church at the Sanctuary of Montenero in the hills above Quercianella. What began on the golf course as a heightened sense of a context beyond the mere moment carried over into the wedding ceremony.

In those few seconds, in that ancient chapel, a lifetime of memories -- from the moment I met her mother to the first time I met her fiancé and beyond -- wove themselves into a seamless tapestry that led inexorably to the exact spot where we stood, as natural and inevitable as a sunrise.

From art, architecture and history to food, golf and bella vita, Tuscany remains an oasis of grace in an increasingly graceless world. All you have to do is go.

Lugging golf clubs across Europe was worth it for that one shining moment in the Tuscan sun.

Live well and take the clubs.