Borgo San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo (pop. 14,600) on the river Sieve is the boom town of the Mugello, partly due to its fast-train rail link to Florence. It’s surrounded by new residential neighbourhoods with gardens full of little chameleons; and indeed they are fond of animals here, as evidenced by the Statue of Fido in Piazza Dante. His master died in a bombing raid in 1943, but Fido wouldn't believe it. He went to the bus stop to meet him every evening without fail until his own death in 1958.

Borgo San Lorenzo has a Romanesque church: San Lorenzo ('la Pieve'), with an unusual hexagonal campanile built in 1263; 3km north, the parish church of San Giovanni Maggiore (rebuilt 1520), has a bell tower that is square at the base but octagonal on top, and a lovely 12th-century pulpit in marble intarsia.