Twenty
minutes
from home.
Florence is where I live, which changes the job in ways that are unglamorous and entirely practical. I have been inside most of these villas more than once. I know which garden loses the sun at four, where the coach cannot turn, and how long it really takes to get from the Duomo to a hill that looks ten minutes away.
The city is
the view,
not the venue
Almost nobody gets married in the middle of Florence. They get married on the hills that look at it — Fiesole, Settignano, Arcetri, Bagno a Ripoli — which is the right decision, because the city is a far better thing to have behind you than around you.
What that buys is a garden with a skyline in it, and a twenty-minute transfer instead of a coach through the centre. What it costs is that the good light comes off those hills earlier than people expect, and a ceremony set too late loses the view it was chosen for.
Selected workA skyline,
and a garden
in front of it
Fiesole, at the end of the day
Fiesole and Settignano
The classic hill villas north-east of the city, with the terraces and water gardens that come with them.
Arcetri and the south
The quieter side, above the Oltrarno, where the gardens are walled and the light goes long and low.
The country edge
Twenty-five minutes out, where Florence stops being a city and becomes Chianti.
- Best months
- May, June, September and the first half of October. Florence in August is emptier of Florentines and fuller of everyone else.
- The light
- The hills west of the city take the sun early. On a west-facing terrace in June the useful hour is closer to seven than to nine, which is worth knowing before the ceremony time is fixed.
- Getting about
- Most of these villas are fifteen to twenty-five minutes from the centre. The limiting factor is almost never the distance, it is the last four hundred metres of the drive.
- Where I am
- Here, for about half the year. A pre-wedding walk or a venue visit is a normal request, not a special one.
Getting married
in Florence?