Settignano

Settignano is a north-east of Florence lying on a hillside village. It belongs administratively to the quarters 2 (Campo di Marte ) of Florence. The name goes back to the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, the alleged founder of the place, which was estimated as the neighboring Fiesole in the Middle Ages as a cooler summer residence of Florentine families, of which the Villa Gamberaia with her terrace garden still bears witness today. Michelangelo spent here at a marble worker and his wife, his childhood. The place made ​​for the nearby marble quarries of Maiano and Trassinaia many sculptors out: Desiderio da Settignano, whose works among others adorn the cathedral of Florence, Bartolomeo Ammannati and Antonio and Bernardo Rosselino. The painter Bartolomeo Bimbi was born here.

Giovanni Boccaccio and Niccolò Tommaseo appreciated the relaxing freshness of the place among the vineyards and olive groves. In 1898 Gabriele D' Annunzio, Villa della Capponcina in the edge region of Settignano, so his mistress Eleonora Duse to be closer, who lived in the villa Porziuncola. In the Villa I Tatti, the art historian Bernard Berenson lived; here today maintains a center for art history at Harvard University. Berenson's friend, the art collector and patron, Leo Stein, retired in 1914 after separating from his sister Gertrude here and died here in 1947. Settignano is also the scene of the novella Pippo Spano by Heinrich Mann.

Transport links

The bus number 10 of the Florentine Transport Authority ( ataf ) runs every 20 minutes between the main train station in Florence and Settignano.