The Medici left behind a necklace of villas around Florence, and the group of them listed by UNESCO in 2013 shows how a banking family turned itself into a ruling dynasty with the help of architecture. Humanists, painters and poets were invited to talk and eat in these gardens, which is where some of the Renaissance really happened.
The villas themselves are low, calm buildings, quite plain from the outside, with terraces, cypress alleys, lemon houses and views across the valley to the dome of the cathedral. It is a quieter kind of grandeur than the palaces in the city, designed for conversation instead of display, and many of the gardens are open to visitors, though times vary a lot, so check before you ride up.
The riding here is lovely but small scale. The roads climb out of Florence in tight, narrow turns between stone walls, olive terraces and cypress, with limited visibility and a lot of cyclists and tour minibuses. It is a ride for a slow Sunday morning, not for pushing, and surfaces can be broken by roots and winter frost. Parking in Fiesole is limited, so arrive early. Caldine and Pian di Mugnone are quiet villages without much more than a cafe or two, while Florence, a few kilometres away, has everything, fuel included.
If you want a proper ride after the gardens, follow the Mugnone valley and the old Via Bolognese north over the Futa Pass, which tops out around nine hundred metres in the Apennines. The road has long, flowing bends, beech woods and views that open once you clear the tree line, and it is a classic among Tuscan motorcyclists. Near the top is a large German war cemetery, a sobering reminder that the Gothic Line ran through these hills in 1944. Autumn is excellent, with chestnut leaves turning and mist lying in the valleys at dawn.