The Medici came from the Mugello, and Il Trebbio is one of the places where you can see it. The family's rise to Florentine power in the fifteenth century began in these hills north of the city, among farms and woods where they held land long before they held banks and palaces. Il Trebbio is a fortified villa near San Piero a Sieve, redesigned for Cosimo the Elder by the architect Michelozzo, and its crenellated walls, tower and gardens mark it as a country retreat that is also, quietly, a statement of status. It is one of the Medici villas listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Nearby, the larger villa-castle of Cafaggiolo has a similar history and is slightly easier to see from the road. The surrounding Mugello is a broad, green basin ringed by the Apennines, where the Sieve river flows, with tidy fields, cypress lines and oak woods. The villas were hunting lodges and working farm estates as much as places of leisure, with vines, olives and grain feeding the household in town.
For anyone who rides, the Mugello means two things. First, the Autodromo del Mugello, where MotoGP stages one of its most-loved races each year, and the local villages are full of fans in the summer. Second, the roads: the old Via Bolognese over the Passo della Futa and the Raticosa to Bologna, with long, fast bends, stone bridges, forests of beech and chestnut and a number of tight, shaded corners. The Futa pass reaches about nine hundred metres and carries heavy motorcycle traffic on weekends, so go early if you can, and be careful with the surface in the wet. Police and speed cameras are present on the busy stretches.
San Piero a Sieve is a small town with fuel and cafes, and Barberino di Mugello, a few kilometres up the valley, has more shops and a wide choice of places to eat. Tuscan bread is made without salt, which can come as a surprise, and it is meant to go with strongly flavoured cured meats and cheese. If you are lucky enough to be here in autumn, the chestnut woods and the first mushrooms make the whole valley smell of woodsmoke and leaves.