The Hill of Arcetri

Just south of the city, up a winding road through olive groves, is Arcetri — one of Florence's quietest corners, and the place where Galileo spent the last nine years of his life under house arrest.

The Inquisition had confined him to Villa Il Gioiello, 'The Jewel', after his 1633 trial, and he never left it again.

He wasn't entirely alone up here.

His daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, lived at the nearby convent of San Matteo and wrote him hundreds of devoted, practical letters throughout his confinement — she died in 1634, a year in, and he outlived her by eight years.

In 1872, the Italian state built the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory on the same hill — an observatory, on the exact spot where the Church had tried to silence the most important astronomer of his age.

It's still an active research facility today.

Fun fact: the hill is also home to the Torre del Gallo, a medieval tower with one of the best unobstructed views over Florence, and almost no tourists.