Settignano

The least touristy of all the balconies over Florence sits under the village of Settignano. The road up passes by way of Ponte a Ménsola, where Boccaccio spent his childhood in the Villa Poggio Gherardo, and where it is believed he set the first three days of The Decameron.

In the 9th century, the Irish Bishop Donatus of Fiesole and his Deacon Andrew Scotus founded the abbey of San Martino a Mensola, just beyond the villa on a little square. Rebuilt in the 1400s, the church has three good trecento works: Taddeo Gaddi’s Triptych of the Madonna with SS. Lucy and Margherita, his son Agnolo's panel paintings St Andrew’s Casket, and on the high altar another triptych by the school of Orcagna, dated 1391. From the quattrocento there’s a Madonna and Saints by Neri di Bicci on the first altar on the left.