It's amazing. I don't know much about Tuscany in ancient times (wait, scratch that, I didn't know anything until I read Tanaquil's posts), but I've always been fascinated by the strong regionalism that sometimes led to wars, notably during the Middle Age and the Renaissance, and that still exists in contemporary Italy, although tainted by far less animosity. Thank to your 1st post Tanaquil, I'm starting to realize that the roots of the rivalery between Florence and Rome run far deeper than I thought.....

Oh, and it's great that you talked about Fiesole, that's definitely a place to visit when you go to Florence (of course, that means that you'll need to plan an extra day, hehe). There is nothing but ruins really, and the only time I visited it was raining heavily with nowhere in sight to hide for a while :-( but we still enjoyed to seat in the Theater, just imagining that people 2000 years ago sat at the exact same place