View from Bonistallo

From the church of Bonistallo and the square in front of it you can enjoy one of the most suggestive panoramic views of Poggio a Caiano; the Latin name itself proves a fortune position of this place: Bonum Stallum, where 'Bonum' (good) refers to the strategic position of this northern offshoot of Montalbano, and 'Stallum' is a Longobard Gothic word which means 'residence'. From here, in addition to having a view over the village, you can admire the whole plain as far as Florence, the Brunelleschi's dome, the hills that surround it and even the Medici Villa of Artimino. Not far from Bonistallo you can find one of the richest in historic memory places of Poggio, the so called 'Cerreto' Villa, today a country villa, but once a real small fort, as the two surviving circular towers and its strategic position prove, from which it dominates the street between Florence and Pistoia. There is a legend saying that the Villas of Cerreto and Poggio a Caiano were connected by a secret underground passage, which would have made possible the clandestine meetings between two famous lovers, the Grand Duke Francesco and the Venetian noblewoman Bianca Cappello, who used to spend the summer in the Villa of Cerreto. Precisely in Bonistallo, in 2004, in the ancient Church of Santa Maria Assunta, some remains of Francesco I and Bianca Cappello were found.