A Glimpse of Tuscany

When you hear the word “Tuscany”, do you, like me, picture a gorgeous country side of rolling hills covered in trees, grass, and grapevines and dusted with fabulous brick and stone villas? We glimpsed this countryside on the train ride from Venice to Florence but once we got to our Airbnb, I no longer felt like I was in Tuscany. I loved Florence! Please don’t mistake me! It just didn’t feel like the countryside I expected.

As well it shouldn’t to be quite honest. Florence has a population of nearly 400,000 people. It should feel like a small city and not the country. While Chris and Linda took their Wanna Be Italian cooking class (no joke! That’s what the certificate says!), I went off to find more of the Tuscany that had peeked through our train windows.

Riverside Run

I started my day with a run along the river to the Parco delle Cascine and then back to city center. It was lovely to see the sun come up over Florence as well as to see all the people enjoying the river walk but it still wasn’t the countryside I wanted.

According to Wikipedia and Visit Tuscany, the pyramid thing you see below was an ice house and is now one of the most unique storage sheds I’ve seen. An ice house! Who knew?!

Fiesole Bound

I cleaned up and consulted the all knowing Google. Some quick sleuthing informed me that not 20 minutes from Florence is a town called Fiesole that has 3 decent trails with picturesque views. Plus, there was a map so I couldn’t possibly get lost when Chris and I went on that never ending hike in the alps! Spoiler: I got lost.

First step was to buy a bus ticket. Google says go to the tobacco shop. Hmmm. Italy is not like the US where there’s a vape shop in every neighborhood. Tobacco shops end up being more like convenience stores or, in my case this day, a newspaper stand next to a pretty good size bus interchange. €1.50 later and I’ve got my ticket. Tip: buy your return ticket at the same time so you don’t have to wonder where you can buy the next ticket especially if you are visiting a tiny little village like Fiesole. I got onto bus #7 which is a direct shot to my destination.

Do you see all the switch backs on this bus route?! It was such a crazy ride. I’m not even joking that the road made detours around monuments and in one case had this crazy U-shaped turn instead of crossing directly over a major rode. Such a wild ride!

Fiesole

The bus dropped me off in the town center, Piazza Mino da Fiesole. There was a decently cool statue that I neglected to take a picture of in my haste to hit the trails. I started with the red trail around the Archeological site. It was only 1.3km and I really wanted to know if the site was worth the cover charge. I decided it wasn’t but your mileage may vary.

I then decided to do the gray trail. 2.5 km? No problem! It’s absolutely worth it too. I started where the map says 12 and climbed up a “slight” hill and then reach this amazing overlook (the one on Via G Verdi). In the foreground are olive trees and in the background, Florence.

I followed the narrow road around town. I kid you not, I saw traffic going in both directions as well as my poor pedestrian self. I legit hopped onto the low wall you see anytime traffic came. Self preservation baby!

I didn’t realize it when I started but this trail incorporates part of the Monte Ceceri park. I was so excited when I saw this sign! I got to go hiking in the woods!!! This is also the point where I started to kick myself for wearing my cute shoes. You know the adorable cat shoes I was (am!) so excited about? Yeah. That’s what I wore hiking. Oops.

I studied the map closely and came up with my game plan. As you can clearly see from the “You are here” tag, I’m at B. Now my original map had me follow the blue trail around to A and then go back through town. I decided I wanted to see new things including the Piazzale Leonardo de Vinci (I’ve still no idea what this is) so my plan was to follow the blue trail for a while then cut back along the red one marked as 1 before taking the other blue one down to the C exit where there’s clearly a bus stop. Brilliant.

Go take another look at that map. You see the red line to the right with the number 7? And that white squiggle just outside the park and leading towards the A exit? I’m pretty sure that was the path I ended up on. The trails in this park are NOT marked. The exits are and they have nice maps but where the trails converge and diverge? Not so much. It’s all good though because it was a lovely day amongst even lovelier scenery.

I knew I was lost because I couldn’t find the Piazzale Leonardo de Vinci shortly after passing the caves. I didn’t know where I was until I found this sign. I love that someone felt the need to correct the map makers with their own “Here!” They were right too! Dang map maker / put er up er.

Now, if I’d been on the blue trail I’d have come out on the trail on the right in the picture below. I did not. I came out on the one on the left which is why I know the hand written note above is correct and why I believe I was on that unnamed white trail.