Settignano, the hill village 20 minutes from Florence

The square and the terrace

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta a Settignano is the village's marker from the valley, a tall plain campanile you can pick out from below. Inside, the nave is small and coffered, a modest Renaissance remodelling of a village church, and the della Robbia terracotta holds the room; a dim Last Supper canvas hangs near it. Entry is free. Mass is said on Saturday at 18:00, and on Sunday at 09:00 and 11:00, and this is a working parish, so come between those hours. A dozen or so people fit without filling the nave; phone the parish on 055 697477 before bringing a coach.

Piazza Desiderio is named for Desiderio da Settignano, the Renaissance sculptor born here, and lies two minutes above the main square. Cypresses and olive terraces fall away under the parapet, and the view runs from the Duomo dome across the city to the Arno valley beyond. The terrace is free, unstaffed and never shut, which suits first light in summer and the last hour of the afternoon in winter. The parapet is narrowest where the view is widest, so photograph in turns. Stone stairs at the far end drop to Via dei Ceci.

Bar Latteria Tre A (Piazza Tommaseo 7) holds the corner of the square. Coffee goes over the counter in the morning, and tubs of own-made gelato come out of the cabinet in the afternoon. Round marble tables under umbrellas spread onto the paving, and a newspaper rack stands inside by the door. Expect €1 to €10 a head. The indoor room is tiny, so take an outside table and watch the bus turn.

Gardens and villas on the hill

Giardino di Villa Gamberaia (Via del Rossellino 72) is a 15-minute walk up from the piazza. Four long still pools lie where flowerbeds once were, shut at the far end by a high arched apse of clipped cypress. A grass bowling green 225 metres long follows the contour of the hillside, and a lemon house and a grotto-nymphaeum crusted with rockwork and ferns sit off the main axis. Entry is €20. Students pay €15 and FAI members €18. Reservations are required for groups and advisable for everyone, because the garden closes without notice when the villa is let for a private event. Confirm your slot by phone on +39 055 697205.

Villa I Tatti is on the Settignano and Fiesole border: Bernard Berenson's house behind an austere cream façade, with a formal green Italian garden of clipped box, a long cypress avenue climbing the slope, a limonaia, olive groves and a vineyard around it. It is a working research centre for Italian Renaissance studies. Tours take eight people at most, run in English only, and go on selected Tuesdays or Wednesdays at 15:00, booked by email to [email protected]. Under-12s are not admitted, and tours stop in July and August. Dates sell out months ahead, so book as soon as your trip is fixed, or look at the façade from the lane.

Villa Il Palmerino is an ochre farmhouse-villa with an open loggia and terracotta pots on a gravel terrace that looks toward Fiesole. Violet Paget wrote here as Vernon Lee, and her family still runs the house as a cultural association. The calendar holds exhibitions, concerts and artist residencies, and the frescoed salon takes recitals; the villa keeps no ticketed opening hours. Visits, performances and dinners are arranged by email to [email protected], and small booked groups are welcome. Reckon on €€.

Villa Viviani has a long balustraded terrace above the olive slopes, lemon trees in terracotta pots, grand frescoed reception rooms and a clear line of sight to the Duomo across the valley. Mark Twain lived in the 17th-century house from September 1892 to June 1893 and drafted Pudd'nhead Wilson in it. The only way in is to hire the place whole, with no shared events: €18,000 to €35,000. The grounds take 200 standing, or 150 seated for dinner. For a visitor on foot it is a gate and a view.

The stonecutters' path to Monte Ceceri

Sentiero degli Scalpellini is signed from the cypress-lined park below the cemetery and climbs on stone slabs laid as a mule path, the working route of the stonecutters who supplied Florence's palazzi. Cut grey faces of pietra serena stand in the abandoned quarries along the way, with bramble and wild asparagus on the verges. The walk is 6.7 km with 230 metres of climb on the return. It is free and unticketed, and it takes a group as easily as a pair. Wear proper shoes and start in the morning. It ends in the Monte Ceceri clearing at the stone monument to Leonardo's flight experiments, and it joins the village to Fiesole on foot, which is how to spend a half day on this hillside.

Downhill to San Martino a Mensola

Chiesa di San Martino a Mensola is 15 minutes downhill from the square, beside the Mensola stream, behind a plain Renaissance façade of 1451. Inside hang a gold-ground triptych by the Master of San Martino a Mensola and panels by Neri di Bicci, with a jewelled gilt-wood bust of Saint Andrew of Scotland. The lower church keeps ninth-century remains standing on Etruscan footings. Admission is free. Free guided visits are booked by email to [email protected], and a free car park sits on Via di San Martino. The art is better than the building's size suggests. Take it as the bottom end of the Settignano walk.

Eating on the square

Caffè Desiderio (Piazza Niccolò Tommaseo 5 rosso) has bottle shelves to the ceiling above a deli counter of cured meats and cheese, small marble tables and a blackboard of wines by the glass. In warm weather the tables go out onto the square. It is an enoteca, a deli and a proper kitchen in one, at €€. It closes on Wednesday, and lunch runs Friday to Sunday only, so check the opening days before you climb the hill. The room is small, so book ahead.

La Sosta del Rossellino (Via del Rossellino 2 rosso) is a tiny room on the lane up to Gamberaia, with a narrow vine-shaded terrace of a few tables looking over the valley. Damiano and Silvia have cooked a Tuscan and Sicilian menu here for 30 years: gnocchi rolled by hand without flour or egg, bistecca brought out raw on a board before it is cooked. Reviews swing hard both ways. Ask for the terrace, order the fresh pasta, and set your expectations by the setting. It is €€, and a party above eight needs a phone call days ahead.

La Capponcina (Via San Romano 15/17 rosso) has a broad open-air terrace cut into the hillside under awnings, with long communal tables facing the city laid out below past the olive trees. The view is the reason to come. New management has dropped the pizzas the place was known for, so arrive expecting a trattoria menu at €€. It opens Wednesday to Saturday evenings and all day Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. Book ahead.

Trattorias on the road and the ridge

Trattoria Osvaldo (Via Gabriele D'Annunzio 51 rosso) is on the climb between Florence and the village: paper-covered tables, a handwritten menu, pasta rolled by hand, an oversized grilled veal chop. The dining room fills with Florentines. Cucina casalinga at €€. Lunch is 12:00 to 14:00 and dinner 20:00 to 22:00, closed Wednesday. Ring +39 055 603972 to hold a table. It is the least touristed good meal on this hillside, and the one locals name first.

Tullio a Montebeni (Via Ontignano 48) is an old stone trattoria in the hamlet of Montebeni, 3 km along the ridge beyond Settignano, so drive or take a taxi. The dining rooms are simple and tiled, and the food is the classic steak run: bistecca alla fiorentina carried in on a wooden board, mounds of mixed fried vegetables, truffle gnocchi. Regulars keep the tables busy, so booking on +39 055 697354 is essential. It closes Monday and at weekday lunchtimes, and shuts for August and a week in February. At €€€, treat it as the destination dinner.

Staying in Settignano

Villa Morghen (Via Feliceto 8) is a fifteenth-century former monastery just below Piazza Desiderio, with a stone-walled garden, a gravel terrace and cypress and olive slopes falling away under it. Breakfast is served looking straight down on the roofs and domes of Florence. Rooms run €102 to €155. Parking is on site, bus 10 stops a few minutes uphill, and the city is 20 minutes down the road. It is the only hotel in Settignano, and the obvious base if the hill walks are what you came for. The property is small, so contact them direct for more than one room.

Opening days and booking

Wednesday closes Caffè Desiderio and Trattoria Osvaldo, La Capponcina shuts Monday and Tuesday, and Tullio a Montebeni adds August and a week in February to its Monday closure. Book Villa Gamberaia and Tullio by phone, and Villa I Tatti and Villa Il Palmerino by email. See the Florence guide and the Florence hotel search.