Fiesole

Florence liked to look at itself as the daughter of Rome, and in its fractious heyday explained its quarrelsome nature by the fact that its population from the beginning was of mixed race, of Romans and ‘that ungrateful and malignant people who of old came down from Fiesole’, according to Dante (of course, Dante’s family claimed to be descended from a Roman soldier).

History

First settled in the 2nd millennium BC, Fiesole grew to become the most important Etruscan city in the region. Yet from the start Etruscan Faesulae’s relationship with Rome was rocky, especially after sheltering Catiline and his conspirators in 65 BC. Because of its lofty position, Fiesole was too difficult to capture, so the Romans built a camp below on the Arno to cut off its supplies. Eventually Fiesole was taken, and it dwindled as the Roman camp below grew into Florentia, growth the Romans encouraged to spite the feisty old Etruscans on their hill.