Sesto Fiorentino

Sesto Fiorentino combines important cultural sites with historic villas, Etruscan tomb monuments and restored wetlands. If you would like to divide your time in Tuscany between art, history and landscapes, you will find very different facets here within a single destination: porcelain and ceramics, gardens shaped over centuries, evidence of Etruscan culture and habitats for migratory birds.

Ceramics, churches and Etruscan history

The Chiesa di San Romolo in Colonnata preserves numerous porcelain furnishings. The Chiesa di Santa Maria e San Jacopo in Querceto offers a different perspective on ceramic culture, with an altar made of marbled terracotta that the Manifattura Ginori created between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The collection of the Museo Ginori covers an even broader period: it includes almost 10,000 porcelain and majolica objects dating from 1737 to 1990. The Archivio della Ceramica Sestese complements this perspective with thousands of ceramic objects, models, plaster moulds, sketches and historic photographs. The older history is also present in tangible buildings. The Pieve di San Martino preserves a shaped wooden cross painted by Agnolo Gaddi around 1390. The Tomba della Montagnola is one of the most important Etruscan funerary monuments in central Italy; a virtual tour and visits to the exterior and interior are available. The Tomba della Mula is a remarkable example of Etruscan architecture from the Orientalising period. It has no central pillar and was built in the middle years of the second half of the 7th century BC as a funerary monument for an exceptionally wealthy princely family.

Villas, gardens and historic spaces

The garden of Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati documents stylistic layers and changes spanning more than three centuries since 1500. Around the middle of the 17th century, Giovanni and Lorenzo Corsi commissioned Gherardo Silvani and Baccio del Bianco to carry out work on the villa and its garden. The complex acquired the forms preserved and restored to this day through a comprehensive redesign carried out approximately between 1708 and 1750. Villa Gerini has been documented as a residence outside the city since the 14th century. Its 19th-century park includes a holm oak grove crossed by paths. An artificial lake has two islands with a pavilion intended as a tea room. The Teatro Limonaia is housed in the former orangery of Villa Corsi Salviati Guicciardini. Since 2013, it has been the home of the Residenza Multipla, a theatre residency recognised by the Region of Tuscany. The range of historic sites therefore extends from sacred art and aristocratic residences to a theatre in a former horticultural building.

Monte Morello and protected wetlands

Monte Morello offers more tranquil landscape experiences. The area covers approximately 1,700 hectares within the territory of Sesto Fiorentino and is of considerable landscape and ecological importance. The Parco della Piana presents a distinctly different type of landscape: an approximately 50-hectare protected area established to restore a former wetland ecosystem. The park lies on an important migratory route used by cranes, flamingos and wild geese. The Oasi WWF Val di Rose includes a lake basin, numerous marshlands, wet meadows and habitats characterised by trees and shrubs that have been restored to preserve flora and fauna. A visitor path leads through the historic core and the newer restored area. This makes it possible to combine visits to sites of cultural and historical interest with two clearly different natural experiences: the forested Monte Morello and the water-rich habitats of the plain.

Guidance for choosing your starting point

For travel and location planning, Sesto Fiorentino railway station and bus route 64 are useful reference points. The station is served by the Pistoia–Viareggio railway line; bus route 64 runs from Sesto Fiorentino station to the terminus. As an additional destination page, you can also access Segalari Segalari.

To the higher-level travel overview: Florence.

More destinations

More places within the same destination:

Linari, San Godenzo, Rignano Sull'arno, Vaglia, Signa, Palazzuolo Sul Senio, Calenzano.