Certosa del Galluzzo

A landmarks south of Florence, the fortress-like Certosa del Galluzzo (or 'Certosa di Firenze') sits high over the Siena road on a hill planted with olives and cypresses. It was founded for the Carthusians in 1341 by one of Andrea Castagno’s ‘Great Men’ in the Uffizi, Niccolò Acciaiuoli, tycoon, condottiere and good friend of Petrarch and Boccaccio. Since 1958 it has been inhabited by Cistercians, one of whom takes visitors around.

The Certosa has a fine courtyard facing the church of San Lorenzo (1545), with an elegant facade, lots of 17th-century art and the pretty Cappella di Santa Maria of 1404, while the subterranean chapels contain impressive and perfectly preserved tombs of the Acciaiuoli family, including a handsome Gothic one of the founder, and a superb one to Cardinal Agnolo II Acciaiuoli, once attributed to Donatello. A door leads into the monk's choir, with its beautifully carved stalls of 1570 and a sumptuous late 16th-century altar.