Fiesole: the Etruscan hill town above Florence
The Roman theatre, the cathedral square, the terrace over the valley, and the climb to San Francesco. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Piazza Mino da Fiesole
The Bus 7 from Florence drops you in the long sloping square at the town's heart. The duomo is on one side, the old bishop's palace on the other, an equestrian statue in the middle. Coffee here before you climb — you've earned the hill town's pace.

2. Duomo di San Romolo
Fiesole's cathedral, plain sandstone outside, tall and bare-stone inside, founded in the 11th century and far older-feeling than anything in Florence below. Cool, dim, usually empty. Step in for a moment out of the sun.

3. Area Archeologica — the Roman theatre
Behind the square, the reason Fiesole keeps its name: a 1st-century-BC Roman theatre cut into the hillside, still used for summer concerts, with Etruscan and Roman ruins and a small museum around it. Sit on the stone tiers facing the hills. Ticketed, and worth it.

4. Via San Francesco — the terrace
The steep lane climbing out of the square toward the convent. Partway up, a public terrace gives the view the whole trip is for: Florence spread on the valley floor, the duomo a small dome in the haze. Stop at the railing; this is the photograph.

5. Convento di San Francesco
At the very top, on the old Etruscan acropolis, a small Franciscan convent with a quiet cloister and a missionary museum of odd collected things. The highest point in town. Walk the cloister, then come back down the same lane.

6. Sant'Alessandro and the descent
Between the terrace and the convent sits this early church on Roman foundations, its columns reused from a temple that stood here first. Then back down to Piazza Mino for the Bus 7, or walk the old road down to Florence if the legs are willing.

Fiesole: the Etruscan hill town above Florence