Pontassieve

The Sieve is a river in Italy. It is a tributary of the Arno, into which it flows at Pontassieve after a course of 62 km. The Sieve rises in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, near the Futa Pass, at 930 m of elevation. The territory in which it flows is known in Italian as Valdisieve. In Italian language, the name "Sieve" is feminine, and is therefore referred to as La Sieve.

Villa Il Palagio is a villa and farm estate in Figline Valdarno, in the province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany. The estate has belonged to the musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler since the late 1990s.

Sammezzano, or the Castle of Sammezzano, is an Italian palazzo in Tuscany featuring Moorish Revival architectural style. It is located in Leccio, a hamlet of Reggello, in the Province of Florence.

Vallombrosa is a toponym which indicates both a forest and a frazione, located within this forest, in the territory of the Commune of Reggello, in the Metropolitan City of Florence, in the Italian region of Tuscany. The village of Vallombrosa ("shaded valley") lies among forests, and was originally the location of a hermitage dedicated to Santa Maria d'Acquabella. Later, the large Benedictine Vallombrosa Abbey was built and remains a major landmark of the region.The Reggello Vallombrosa meteorological station is located there. In the Vallombrosa area lies a nature reserve of the same name, as well as the renowned Vallombrosa Arboretum and a vast lawn, very popular in the summer period, especially by the inhabitants of Florence looking for rustic relaxation.

Villa Gamberaia is a seventeenth-century villa near Settignano, outside Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is it characterized now by eighteenth-century terraced garden. The setting was praised by Edith Wharton, who saw it after years of tenant occupation with its parterre planted with roses and cabbages, and by Georgina Masson, who saw it restored by Sig. Marcello Marchi after its near ruin during the Second World War. to the immaculately clipped and tailored condition today.

Settignano is a frazione on a hillside northeast of Florence, Italy. The little borgo of Settignano carries a familiar name for having produced three sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance, Desiderio da Settignano and the Gamberini brothers, better known as Bernardo Rossellino and Antonio Rossellino. The young Michelangelo lived with a sculptor and his wife in Settignano—in a farmhouse that is now the "Villa Michelangelo"— where his father owned a marble quarry. In 1511 another sculptor was born there, Bartolomeo Ammannati. The marble quarries of Settignano produced this series of sculptors. Roman remains are to be found in the borgo which some have claimed was named after Settimio or Septimius Severus—in whose honor a statue was erected in the oldest square in the 16th century, destroyed in 1944— though habitation here long preceded the Roman emperor. The name may be a corruption from the term Fundus Septimianus.Settignano was a secure resort for estivation for members of the Guelf faction of Florence. Giovanni Boccaccio and Niccolò Tommaseo both appreciated its freshness, among the vineyards and olive groves that are the preferred setting for even the most formal Italian gardens.Mark Twain and his wife stayed at the Villa Viviani in Settignano from September 1892 to June 1893. While there, Twain wrote 1,800 pages including a first draft of Pudd'nhead Wilson. He said the villa "afford[ed] the most charming view to be found on this planet".In 1898, Gabriele d'Annunzio purchased the trecento Villa della Capponcina on the outskirts of Settignano, in order to be nearer to his lover Eleonora Duse, at the Villa Porziuncola. Near Settignano are the Villa Gamberaia, a 14th-century villa with an 18th-century terraced garden, and secluded Villa I Tatti, the villa of Bernard Berenson, now a center of Italian Renaissance studies run by Harvard University. In 2019 Carolyn McPherson said: "My family lived in Settignano in 1955 and 1956; I was 10. Many houses in the village were badly damaged, apparently by explosives. We were able to rent a villa about 1/4 of a mile from the entrance to the Villa Gamberaia. We were told that the Gamberaia had been headquarters for the Nazi command in Florence, and that the owner of our villa had been a collaborator with the Germans and thus was a persona non grata in the village. In 1955--10 years after the end of WWII--it was still possible to find large fragments of burned maps lying in the olive groves below the Gamberaia. We visited the famous gardens once; most of the trees and shrubs were dead, and the statuary broken".Settignano houses the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta with its artworks.

Vincigliata Castle (Italian: Castello di Vincigliata) is a medieval castle which stands on a rocky hill to the east of Fiesole in the Italian region of Tuscany. In the mid-nineteenth century the building, which had fallen into a ruinous state, was acquired by the Englishman John Temple-Leader and entirely reconstructed in the feudal style. Between 1941 and 1943 it served as a small prisoner-of-war camp known as Castello di Vincigliata Campo P.G. 12. It housed some high-ranking British and Commonwealth officers, including Major-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, who was employed by the Italian government in the Armistice negotiations with the Allies in 1943.

The International School of Florence (ISF) is one of the oldest international schools in Europe. It is located in Florence, Italy, and was formerly called the American International School of Florence. The ISF is an independent, coeducational, and nonsectarian institution. The school is fully accredited with the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSACS). The preschool through grade 5 campus is in Bagno a Ripoli while the 6-12 campus is in Florence itself.

Azienda Agricola Testamatta is an Italian winery run by Bibi Graetz, a winemaker of artist background from Italian/Norwegian heritage, who produces several Tuscan wines from vineyards located in the hills of Fiesole that overlook the city of Florence. Graetz has been described as a "cool winemaker" and "one of the rising young stars in Tuscany". The wines are all classified as Toscana IGT.

The Arboreti di Vallombrosa (about 12 hectares) are seven arboreta located within the Forest Demaniale Vallombrosa near the historic Vallombrosa Abbey founded in 1036 by St. John Gualbert of Visdomini, heavenly patron of the Italian Forestry Corps. They are located in Vallombrosa, Reggello, Province of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, operated by the Carabinieri Department for Biodiversity of Vallombrosa. During the summer months there are free guided tours every day, in all other periods upon prior request. The arboreta date back to 1869 at another location, or to 1884 in the current location, when 230 plants were transferred in a move of the Regio Istituto Superiore Forestale's headquarters within the Vallombrosa forest. New sections were added in 1885–1886, and in 1891 a botanical garden was created; it was abandoned in 1914 and nothing remains today but a tub. In 1894 another section was added on the Masso del Diavolo to provide a suitable environment for Mediterranean species. Severe bombing during World War II badly damaged the arboreta, but they have since recovered. Today the arboreta currently contain more than 5,000 specimens belonging to more than 1200 species of trees and shrubs, representing 137 genera, and claim to be Italy's most important collection of plants cultivated for scientific and experimental purposes. They encompass seven distinct arboreta organized into 50 sections. The arboreta are as follows: Arboreto "di Bérenger" (1869, area 1.32 hectares) Arboreto "Siemoni" (1880, area 0.34 hectares) Arboreto "Tozzi" (1886, area 3.00 hectares) Arboreto "Gellini" (1894, 3 hectares), on the Masso del Diablo Arboreto "Perona" (1914, area 0.97 hectares) Arboreto "Pavari" (1923–1958, area 2.10 hectares) Arboreto "Allegri" (1976, 1 hectare)

Vallombrosa is a Benedictine abbey in the comune of Reggello (Tuscany, Italy), about 30 km south-east of Florence, in the Apennines, surrounded by forests of beech and firs. It was founded by Florentine nobleman Giovanni Gualberto in 1038 and became the mother house of the Vallumbrosan Order.

Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and Islamic art, as well as a research library of 140,000 volumes and a collection of 250,000 photographs. It is the site of Italian and English gardens. Villa I Tatti is located on an estate of olive groves, vineyards, and gardens on the border of Florence, Fiesole and Settignano. While guided tours of the gardens are offered, Villa I Tatti itself is not generally open to the public.