Fiesole

Saturday, November 15

Fiesole is one of Florence's many suburban neighborhoods and is, by all accounts, the prettiest. Aneisa, Annie, and I decided one Saturday to hop the Number 7 bus from Santa Maria Novella station and see what it was all about.

After a fifteen minute drive through some of Florence's prettiest neighborhoods and up a long, winding hill, we were deposited in the main piazza. It appeared that the town had newly renovated their main square and were celebrating by gathering for carousel rides. High on a hill, the little town overlooks Florence. It boasts an archaeological museum and ruins, as well as several pretty churches.

We decided just to take a walk and see what we came across. Our wanderings led us to a beautiful country lane. At first we thought it might lead around the town, but we were proven wrong. It was still a nice walk, however, and the weather was absolutely perfect! (Uncharacteristic for Florence's rainy Novembers.) On our walk we encounterd a family picnic, olive harvesters, a stray cat stalking its prey, and some Moroccan laborers who informed us were were not, in fact, headed back toward Fiesole.

We turned around after the Moroccans and walked the thirty minutes back into the town proper, where Annie and I ordered a coffee and we all stopped to watch the carousel. Finally, we ambled down the hill to check out the misty view of Florence. It's amazing how you can still see the Duomo clearly even from that distance.

All in all, it was a very relaxing and pretty afternoon.