Beautiful life on the hills

Beautiful life on the hills
Fiesole (FI)
Nel verde
Magazine: August 2007

Fiesole

A stickle moon seems to hold the breath of the past: this is Fiesole. Soft hills wrapped in olive trees and ancient cypress, superb villas and fi ne gardens other than vineyard scenery enrapture a tourist following the archaeological fi nds that prop the territory. Exit Florence and in a short time, only 8 km and 10 minutes by car one gets to the centre. Fiesole is mostly about nature. It is to the scenery more than to artistic and architectonical beauty that it owns its affl uence. The cypresses were introduced in the period further away that one can imagine and it dates back to the Etruscan era. At the end of 1800’s sumptuous gardens about the villas were introduced when the Medici conveyed the fl avour of the architectonical beauty scattering 177 villas 564 houses (many were registered in 1870) throughout the area apart from churches, farm roads, fountains and terraces. One visit to the sandstone quarry is enough to realize the dimensions of the undertaking at the source of the fi ne Renaissance architecture and the dispersion of numerous art and common use artefacts. In order to see the historical Fiasole it is necessary to stop by the Civic Museum and at the surrounding archaeological zone discovered in 1873 by the marquis Carlo Strozzi. And wine in Fiesole is no other but Chianti. This little town on the hills is one of the harbingers of the Chianti Classico zone. Beautiful life on the hills

A terrace over the quarries
It captivated all palates, foreign and Italian, tourist and local with its splendid Florentine steak and unsurpassable Tuscan wine. ‘La Terrazza’ restaurant managed by Mr Francesco Papagno and Chef Antonio is certainly a reference point for any gourmet connoisseur. Alongside the traditional dishes are the platters revisited, and the Chef’s new creations. It is not only the cuisine that captures, though. The breathtaking view on the dwelling centre causes the restaurant to be a truly unique spot. Not to be missed are the deserts and ice cream produced by Papagno for 17 years. The ice-cream shop is set up in the front of the sandstone quarry and it resides in the quarry’s old stonemasons’ tool rooms. For tens of years they stood abandoned until the renovations. Magic formula? Cool climate in the summer and mild in the winter. And the variety: there are 40 kinds of ice cream prepared by the Chef, not to mention cocktails, frappes, and crushed-ice drinks that win over any client.