Fiesole was Etruscan before Florence existed: from the hill, the mother has watched the daughter for twenty-five centuries. The Roman theatre, still in use for the Estate Fiesolana — among Italy's longest-running festivals, since 1947 — the baths and the archaeological museum compose a miniature acropolis among cypresses.
The convent of San Francesco, up the steep climb, grants the panorama over Florence that Grand Tour travellers held obligatory; Medici villas and gardens dot the descent. Twenty minutes by bus from the Duomo, Fiesole is the Florentines' breath of air — and their savvier guests'.
Near Fiesole
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
