Porta Romana up to Pian dei Giullari
The southern gate, the climb past Annalena and the Bobolino, and the cypress lane to Galileo's last house. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Porta Romana
Start at the great brick gate of 1328, the southern door in the last city wall, still standing while most of the others came down. Walk through it and look back at the faded fresco in the arch; this was the last thing travellers saw of Florence on the road to Rome.

2. Via di Annalena
Slip up the quiet lane named for a fifteenth-century widow who turned her house into a convent. High walls, a hidden garden or two, almost no traffic. It's the gentle start of the climb; take it slowly while the gradient is kind.

3. Il Bobolino
The wooded shoulder below the Boboli's southern edge, where the city gives way to villa gardens and the first proper views open behind you. A bench or two; pause and look back at the dome floating over the rooftops before the real climb.

4. Via di San Leonardo
The walled country lane Tchaikovsky once lodged on, lined with the cypresses and olive terraces that start the moment you leave the gate behind. Slow, green, and steep enough to earn the view. Pass the little Romanesque San Leonardo in Arcetri if its door is open.

5. Pian dei Giullari
The hamlet of villas on the ridge — the name means the players' plateau, for the entertainers who once performed up here. Stone walls, cypress, the odd farm gate. Walk the lane slowly; this is the country that begins five minutes above a Renaissance city.

6. Villa Il Gioiello
Galileo's last house, where he lived under house arrest after the 1633 trial, watched the sky he was forbidden to discuss, and went blind. The 'little jewel' is small and usually shut, but the cypress lane and the view it commands are the close of the walk. Turn here and let gravity carry you back.

Porta Romana up to Pian dei Giullari