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some excursions

• Badia a Ripoli where stands the abbey church of the same name founded in the late B C.
• San Donato in Collina, in a beautiful position overlooking the Arno Valley.
• Incisa in Val d’Arno is a large town on the banks of the Arno. It has the remains of a castle and some medieval buildings
• Figline Valdarno. beginning as a castle of the Ubertini di Gaville (Figlin Vecchio), after the bishops of Fiesole tried to make it their seat, it passed permanently to Florence, who fortified it in mid-14C. Passing the late 16C sanctuary of Ponte Rosso, we enter piazza Marsilio Ficino, the old "market", ringed by porticos, with the Ex-Spedale Serristori on the short side and at the end the collegiate church of S. Maria, originally 13 C but altered in various periods and with works of art. To the church’s left an alley leads to the 14C palazzo Pretorio, unfortunately greatly changed in the 20C, and then to the church of S. Francesco, in typical Franciscan Style and with a portico in front.
• Vallombrosa (958 m). Here in the forest of beech, chestnut and fir there withdrew with one companion the Florentine noble Giovanni Gualberto dei Visdomini, forming a humble community and giving life to the Benedictine congregation that was to take the name Vallombrosa. The monastery was rebuilt in the 15C and then on further occasions until the 18C.
• From Vallombrosa a high altitude road leads through a beechwood to Consuma (1023 m), after a brief stretch of the SS 70. From this holiday resort, near the pass to the Casentino, we can descend through the Borselli and Diacceto localities, to Pontassieve and from there return to Florence.
• Pontassieve, today a busy wine and industrial centre, retains its 14C fortifications and three gateways including that of the "orologio"; at the end of the town is the Medici Bridge over the Sieve.
• Castelnuovo, a pictoresque collection of originally medieval houses; carrying on, again on our right, a road leads to the ancient Franciscan hospice of the Madonna dei Fossi (much restored in the 20C but with a Della Robbia work). from here to continue to Pomino, famed for its wine production and near which is the romanesque parish church of S. Bartolomeo.

(Text from "Around Florence", Amministrazione provinciale di Firenze Assessorato al Turismo, De Agostini)