Museo Bandini
Tucked behind the Roman theatre in a modest 18th-century building, the Museo Bandini holds a collection of early Tuscan and Venetian panel paintings — including works by Taddeo Gaddi and Nardo di Cione — that would be blockbusters in Florence but here you'll likely have the rooms entirely to yourself.
The collection
Canon Angelo Maria Bandini bequeathed his personal collection to Fiesole in 1795, and it has barely been touched since — which is precisely its charm. The ground floor displays glazed terracotta pieces by the della Robbia workshop alongside ivory carvings and illuminated manuscripts. Upstairs, the panel paintings include a luminous 14th-century Annunciation and a polyptych by Bicci di Lorenzo that still retains its original gold-leaf ground.
The scale is intimate — perhaps 12 rooms — and the lighting is natural and unhurried. There are no audio guides, no gift shop, and the custodian will often chat with you about individual pieces if you show genuine curiosity.
Why it matters
For anyone who has stood exhausted in the Uffizi crowds straining to see a Cimabue, Bandini offers the rare pleasure of standing six inches from a 13th-century tempera painting with no one else in the room. The works document the transition from Byzantine stiffness to the early naturalism that would flower in Florence a generation later.
Combined ticket with the Roman theatre and archaeological museum makes this essentially free as an add-on — there is no logical reason to skip it.
Museo Bandini on video
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