Quarrata

In the second half of the 18th-century, the castles of Buriano, Campiglio, Ferruccia, Lucciano, Montemagno, Vignole, and Valenzatico were united under the community of Tizzana, a castle on the slopes of Montalbano that dominates the entire plain as far as Florence. Between the late 19th and the early 20th century, the town seat was moved to the plain, with the community officially taking the name of Quarrata in 1959.

Today it has a mostly modern look, set around Piazza Risorgimento, with the sculptor Agenore Fabbri’s Monument to the Fallen in its centre.

Not to be missed: the Medici villa of La Magia, converted from a 14th-century tower, is one of the twelve Medici residences in Tuscany declared a Unesco World Heritage Site. The hamlet of La Ferruccia offers a visit to the Museum of Sacred Art in the Church of Santi Filippo e Giacomo. Standing on the slopes of Colle di Tizzana is the Church of Santa Maria, later enlarged and modified by the architect Giovanni Michelucci.