Three Swiss in Florence – taking bus number 7 to Fiesole

Fiesole is an old historical town that was overtaken by Florence later

Situated on a hill north of Florence is Fiesole. The Etruscans founded it far above the Arno by to avoid the floodings. In 59 BC the Romans established Florence next to Fiesole. Diokletian made Florence the capital of Tuscany and Umbria. Medieval Florence conquered Fiesole (around 1000 AD).

Fiesole shows the remains of their Roman city as an archaeological site open to visitors. After a three day culture marathon with the Firence card, we now head to Fiesole to see the Roman remains and to look at Florence from above.

How to get to Fiesole – bus number 7

Besides giving access to museums and churches, the Firenze card also provides a bus ticket. We climb bus number 7 near Accademia in Via Giorgio. As the bus follows the winding road upwards, the gardens and houses are getting larger – a suburban residential atmosphere. The view of Florence is spectacular.

The archaeology museum closes at 2 PM

At Fiesole, we find out that the archaeology museum closes at 2 PM and now it is 12. No mercy, no lunch… Trying to calm down my empty stomach, I take a photo of these nicely set tables waiting for guests and I had a small power bar that Leni found in her bag.

We buy the entry ticket and wander around the Roman ruins. There are an amphitheatre,…

… archades that are left from the Roman baths (with a view of the Renaissance cathedral),…

… the remains of a Roman temple that was built on the foundations of an Etruscan temple…

… and a cobbled Roman road.

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Beware not to climb around the ruins – this may be dangeorus.

We have a short look at the museum, but the guard warns us of a “terremoto” and does not let us access the upper levels. A terremoto? Why a terremoto? We learn later that at 11:36 a terremoto of 4.1 Richter magnitude scale has shaken the area of Florence. And this was the most serious of a series of earth quakes hitting the Chianti area today. Sitting in the bus, we had not noticed anything. We only observed that the cupboards in our hotel room were shaking, when there was a minor earth quake of about 3 around five o’clock early the next morning.

After having seen the Roman ruins, we return to the restaurant on the main square of Fiesole to have a pizza. Outside where the tables are nicely set, it is too chilly for us. We select a table under the garlic garlands…