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The Castle of Trebbio
It is a medieval castle commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici which hosted historical important figures: Lorenzo Il Magnifico who spent his days hunting, Giovanni dalle Bande nere who lived there for a short period and Amerigo Vespucci who chose it as a shelter from the plague in Florence.
The Abbey of Buonsollazzo (Monastery of San Bartolomeo)
The abbey takes its name from the Latin word bonum solacium, meaning good sun exposure, due to its constant exposure to sunlinght.
The Marquise Ugo di Toscana had a demonic vision which drove him to convert.
Mount Senario
The mountain is crowned by a fir wood, a result of the monks' great experience, while its lowest slopes covered by centuries-old chestnuts. In 1241, the Ubaldini Family gave the Bishop of Florence a part of the mountain for the Seven Founding Saints of the Servite Order who founded Monte Senario Monastery.
Vetta Le Croci
The corpses of more than two hundred thousand barbarians who died in battle in Montereggi on 8th October 405 a.d. were buried in a mass grave to the north of the battlefield; this area was called Vetta Le Croci because of crosses put in memory of the dead barbarians and their warlord Radagaiso.
Poggio Pratone
The wide esplanade overlooking the city of Florence is crossed by the "Via Flaminia minor" built on an Etruscan road connecting Fiesole to Felsina (Bologna). According to some documents dating back to 217 b.c., Hannibal also went throught it getting to Rome, circumventing the cities of Lucca, Arezzo and Rimini controlled by the Romans.
Mount Ceceri
The hill was theatre of a very revolutionary experiment in 1506: Leonardo da Vinci flying machine testing. All attempts had failed before then. According to Leonardo's notes, Tommaso Masini pilot gilded for about one thousand metres and landed in Camerata, a village between Fiesole and Florence. So, the first human fly in the history was successfull.
Fiesole
It is an Etruscan city with an important archeological area: the Roman theatre, the San Romolo Cathedral and the San Francesco Monastery with an acropolis in the centre of it. Fiesole is also famous for the sandstone extraction, called "fiesolana". Today a park has been created to show people the ancient open-air quarries and artificial caves.
The cow's head in the Dome
When you arrive to Piazza del Duomo, an historical and religious buildings will surround you: the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, the Giotto's Campanile, Opera del Duomo Museum and the San Giovanni Baptistry. Nobody knows that a cow's head hangs from the left side of the Duomo. Legend tells about a master builder putting cow's head toward the balcony of his beloved girl (married with another man). It was a sort of revenge against her husband demanding her betrayal tried by the eccesiastical court. Harsh punishments were inflicted on two lovers.
(Info: www.firenzeturismo.it)
The two heads of Perseus
The bronze statue of Perseus stands underneath the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria. Commissioned by Cosimo I dè Medici in 1500, it shows Perseus holding his sword in his right hand and holding up triumphantly the Medusa's decapitated head in his left. The sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini, wanted to hide a surprise on the back of the statue: a disturbing self-portrait appears on Perseus's nape.
SS Annunziata Square
Ferdinando I equestrian statue, built by Giambologna and completed in 1608, stands in the middle of the square. A bas-relief on the back of the pedestal depicts a queen bee (the Grand Duke) surrounded by a swarm of worker bees (his subjects) and the motto "Maiestate Tantum". As bees are in staggered circles, it's very difficult to count them; that's why naughty children were asked to stand still in front of the statue until they had counted all the bees.