To the right of the bridge alla Badia there is the Badia Fiesolana: once the cathedral of the town of Fiesole until 1026, was then converted into a convent, and then restored and enlarged by Cosimo de’ Medici in 1456, when it assumed its present aspect in compliance with Brunelleschi’s layout for the Basilica of S. Lorenzo in Florence. Its Romanesque façade with green and white marble inlays is wonderful.

After going past the village of Caldine, you will find the 15th-century Convent of the Maddalena (once a small hospital), you then go past the Querciola (where in the Middle Ages there was an "ospitale" [a hostel] which gave shelter to both pilgrims and foundlings sent from Mugello to the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence) and drive up as far as the Olmo.


Just before Vetta le Croci you turn right onto the road to S. Brigida - Molin del Piano: after about 2 km there is a road on your left which climbs up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie del Sasso through the woods. In the 11th century an Oratory was built there, near which, between 1484 and 1485, the Virgin Mary is said to have miraculously appeared several times to two young shepherdesses who had invoked her to obtain their father’s recovery. In memory of those apparitions, around 1490 the New Church (or Upper Oratory) was built, which surmounted the previous lower oratory due to the steep ground.
In order to meet the needs of pilgrims who climbed up to the oratory on rainy days in 1615-75, an airy portico with two sides of segmental arches supported by sandstone columns was added to the front of the Church, thus incorporating the façade of the church, including the vestibule, into a full-centre arch. Later the Stanze delle Compagnie were built on the initiative of over twenty parishes. Inside the Upper Oratory, on the high altar, there is a solemn grey sandstone effigy by the Sansovino school (first half of the 16th century) with bas-reliefs bearing references to the Virgin Mary’s apparitions and messages. In the central niche there is a wooden statue of the Virgin of the Gospel (1965). Inside the Lower Oratory, the Chapel of Apparitions contains a painting on wood – an ex-voto of the Ricovera family created by the Florentine painter Benintendi, called Il Ceraiolo – showing the Madonna delle Grazie, who is still the object of great worshipping today. Dante Alighieri, Beatrice Portinari and S. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi came here on pilgrimage. Pilgrims are welcome to stay. Call 0558300013

After getting back to the Pass of Vetta le Croci, via Faentina starts descending towards the Mugello among pastures, pinewoods and woods, going past some typical farmhouses and the villages of Polcanto and Faltona with the Romanesque parish church dating back to the 11th century and often restored, flanked by a high 12th-century bell tower.

Once you drive past Villa Guiducci, a beautiful 18th century building with vast lawns shaded by a century-old cedar, and leave the road to Sagginale on your right, you enter Borgo San Lorenzo and meet the Oratory of the Santissimo Crocifisso dei Miracoli, built in the 18th century to house a painted wooden Crucifix, probably a work by Giovanni Pisano (14th century), left here in the 15th century by some German pilgrims running away from the plague. Above the high altar there is a deep niche in which the crucifix is situated. The niche is hidden by a large 19th-century canvas manoeuvred by a "machine" which makes it possible to lift it or lower it on those occasions when the Crucifix is displayed for worshipping. (Several “miracles” have been attributed to the Crucifix: the end of the plague in the 15th century, only little damage suffered by Borgo San Lorenzo in 1542 during a violent earthquake and the liberation from the French in 1799).

To the left of the Oratory there is the Church of San Francesco, with a unique huge nave which has recently been restored and brought back to its ancient splendour. In the centre of Borgo San Lorenzo there is the Parish church of S. Lorenzo dating back to 941. It was reconstructed in 1263 and the bell tower, planned around the semicircular apse and brought forward in bricks in the shape of a semi dodecagon, might be dating back to that year. Inside the church contains a Madonna attributed to Giotto, a Crucifix painted on wood of the school of Giotto, a Madonna on the  Throne with Bambino attributed to Agnolo Gaddi, a Virgin Mary and Saints Francesco and Domenico by Matteo Rosselli. The apse was frescoed by Galileo Chini. To one side of the façade, on the right, there is a polychrome clay tabernacle created by the Fornaci [kilns] Chini.

In the immediate vicinity of Borgo, along the road which from the highway No. 551 (the Borgo-San Piero stretch) leads to Scarperia and Luco di Mugello, in a solitary position on a hill there is the Convent of Cappuccini di San Carlo, dating back to 1613. On the façade of the church there is a Pietà in clay, created by the Chini kilns in Borgo San Lorenzo, while inside there is a Holy Family attributed to the school of the Ghirlandaio. In the cloister of the convent there is a 33-metre-deep well dug up in 1617.
Pilgrims are welcome to stay. Call 0558459990 - 0558459385

From Borgo San Lorenzo you have to get back onto via Faentina which continues towards the north among cultivated low hills. After 3 km a row of cypress trees on your left leads to the Parish church of San Giovanni Maggiore dating back to the 10th century, reconstructed between 1520 and 1530 and altered in the 19th century. The 11th-century bell tower is interesting with its octagonal section and designed according to a square basement: three orders of single-lancet windows of growing sizes open on the sides. Inside there is a remarkable 12th-century marble ambon. The window panes were made by the Chini Manufacture.

After you have gone past the village of Panicaglia, you reach a bend from which you get a wonderful view over the hill of Pulicciano and the Valley of the Ensa stream, with the old church of Ronta and its high bell tower. After passing through the hamlet of Poggio, you enter Ronta and drive along apparently flat ground until you come to the Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Tre Fiumi dating back to 1578 and enlarged by Buini in 1705. Around 1789 the three-arch portico was cut to allow the construction of the new via Faentina. There was a Hospice annexed to it (today the Hotel Tre Fiumi), connected with that of Quadalto in Palazzuolo sul Senio. The story has it that while some women were kneeling down praying in front of the tabernacle situated in the same place where the Sanctuary stands today, the face of the Virgin Mary came to life and started to cry. Many pilgrims went there to ask for "Grazie" [Pardons], so that a lot of miracles took place. Hence the decision to build the Sanctuary.

Beyond the Sanctuary the slope becomes steeper and the road runs at length along the winding flow of the Ensa stream, between high stratifications and steep wooded mountain sides. You reach Razzuolo, where the church was formerly part of a Vallombrosan parish church, the Badia of San Paolo, founded in 1035 by San Giovanni Gualberto. After a few more steep bends you reach the Passo della Colla di Casaglia. From the pass you take highway No. 477 on your left towards Palazzuolo sul Senio. The road descends amidst landscapes dominated by uncontaminated woods of beech-trees, chestnut trees and oak trees only interrupted by stone outcrops, as far as Quadalto at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Neve. In 1459 a small Oratory was built and then enlarged in the early 17th century so as to take on the shape and size of today’s church. With an airy portico at the front, the Church inside has three naves separated by arches supported by pillars. The stone high altar contains an image of the Virgin Mary in Botticelli style, which is widely worshipped. Inside the choir surrounded by precious iron railings made by Dino Chini, there are two valuable Baroque altars and a lovely 18th-century organ. Next to the church there is the convent built in 1744 and run by the Franciscan order of the Ancelle di Maria and the ancient Molino di Quadalto, nowadays used as guest quarters.

From Quadalto you reach Palazzuolo sul Senio, nicely arranged along the river, with some Medieval buildings including the austere Palazzo dei Capitani. On the square, to the right of the Palace, there is the 18-th century Church of Sant'Antonio, with a beautiful portico with three arches at the front.
It is worth mentioning also the Church of Santo Stefano (always open) with ancient origins, but well-refurbished at the beginning of the century. Inside the vicarage there are valuable paintings, sculptures and vestment and church plates coming from abandoned churches in the area.

In the surroundings there is the Abbey of Susinana belonging to the Vallombrosan Order, nowadays transformed into a farm villa with the ancient church, recently restored (open only through booking. Call 0558046014) and the Medieval Parish Church of Misileo with its peculiar crypt (open only though booking. Call 054675084).

From Palazzuolo driving along highway No. 306 you reach Marradi, "a castle situated at the feet of teh Alps that separate Tuscany from Romagna" (Niccolò Machiavelli), and immediately meet the Archpriest Church of S. Lorenzo reconstructed in the 18th century with majestic Neoclassic forms upon the structure of a pre-existing medieval church. Inside it contains a triptych by the Master of Marradi who worked here at the end of 1400 using a style very close to that of Ghirlandaio.

Marradi, before it fell under the control of Florence in 1258, it was a feud of the Abbey del Borgo (Santa Reparata in Salto), which you can reach after a short drive along the provincial road connecting Marradi and S. Benedetto in Alpe. It is an important monastic complex dating back to the 11th century and belonging to the Benedictine first, then to the Vallombrosa order; it was restores in Baroque forms in 1741/65. Its austere sturdy square plan bell tower has kept its Romanesque aspect. The Church’s simple saddleback stone façade preludes to the bright single nave Baroque inside, with an ample transept. Inside the sacristy there are paintings by the Master of Marradi dating back to the end of the 15th century. At the back of the church there are the remains of the convent area.

From Marradi you get back onto via Faentina towards the south climbing up to the Passo della Colla di Casaglia, driving through the typical mountain hamlets of Camurano, Poggiol di Termini, Crespino, Casaglia. From the Pass you start descending towards Borgo San Lorenzo and then along via Bolognese or via Faentina you get back to Florence.