FIESOLE | FLORENCE PROVINCE

Fiesole, Province of Firenze, Tuscany, Italy, rises on a famously scenic height 346 m (1140 ft) above Florence, 8 km (5 mi) NE of the city. Georgetown University, the oldest Roman Catholic university in the United States, maintains an overseas program in Fiesole, housed at Villa le Balze.

Fiesole was probably founded in the 9th-8th century BC, as it was an important member of the Etruscan confederacy, but the first recorded mention on the town dates to 283 BC when the town, then known as Faesulae, was conquered by the Romans.

Fiesole fell to the Germanic hordes in AD 405 and was an independent town for several centuries afterwards, though always overshadowed by Florence, before being conquered by the Florentines in 1125.

WHAT TO SEE

• remnants of Etruscan walls, Roman baths, and a Roman theater
• the Romanesque church dating from 1028,
• the Palazzo Comunale (Town Hall) of the 14th century.