What is Barberino di Mugello known for?

Cosimo the Elder's villa transformed by Michelozzo around 1451, the first major Medici country residence, UNESCO World Heritage since 2013. Largest artificial lake in Tuscany at five square kilometers, completed 1999, supplying Florence, Prato and Pistoia and used for water sports. First town on the Sieve north of Florence, the historic road and rail entry into the Mugello and over the Apennines to Bologna.

Where is Barberino di Mugello?

Barberino di Mugello is a comune in the province of Firenze, Tuscany region of Italy, about 32 kilometers from Prato.

Tuscany · Firenze

Barberino di Mugello

The Mugello gatewaywhere the Medici family kept its first country villas, with Michelozzo's Cafaggiolo and the artificial Lago di Bilancino below.

32 km / 20 mi

Nearest hub (Prato)

10,920

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

UNESCO

Why come

Barberino di Mugello sitsin the upper Sieve valley, twenty-five kilometers north of Florence, the road and rail gateway from the city to the Mugello and onward to Bologna across the Apennines. The Medici family had its roots in this territory: Cosimo the Elder commissioned Michelozzo around 1451 to transform the medieval castle at Cafaggiolo into a country villa, the first in the Medici building campaign that would later run through Poggio a Caiano and Cerreto Guidi. In 2013 Villa di Cafaggiolo and the nearby Villa del Trebbio joined eleven other Medici properties on the UNESCO list. Michelozzo's hand also shows on the fourteenth-century loggia in the main piazza of Barberino. South of the town lies the Lago di Bilancino, an artificial reservoir completed in 1999, the largest in Tuscany at five square kilometers, built to feed the water supply of Florence, Prato and Pistoia, and now used for sailing, windsurfing and birdwatching.

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Gallery

6 photos · scroll →

We’ve tried

Restaurants, walks, swims. Things we tried in Barberino di Mugello.

Erbe, the bitter boiled greens that make a kilo of rare beef sit like a virtue.
Erbe | The Greens on the Side
The bistecca alla fiorentina, and why everyone who tries to improve it ruins it.
The Fiorentina Steak | Leave it alone

Known for

Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo
Medieval castle transformed into a country villa by Michelozzo around 1451 for Cosimo the Elder, UNESCO World Heritage since 2013.
Villa Medicea del Trebbio
Smaller medieval Medici castle on a wooded hilltop near San Piero a Sieve, also inscribed on the UNESCO list of Medici Villas in 2013.
Lago di Bilancino
Artificial reservoir completed in 1999, five square kilometers, the largest in Tuscany, built to supply Florence, Prato and Pistoia.
Loggia di Michelozzo
Fourteenth-century loggia in the main piazza of Barberino, attributed to Michelozzo from the period of the Cafaggiolo works.
Pieve di San Silvestro
Medieval parish church above the village, on the road into the Sieve valley, with stone façade and single nave.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June brings the Mugello hills into clear green and the lake of Bilancino into its season for windsurfing and small-boat sailing. September and October are dry and gold, the harvest in the upper Sieve and the chestnut woods on the higher ridges. July and August are hot enough in the valley to drive most weekenders to the lake; the two Medici villas are cool inside year-round. November through March is quiet, the higher passes occasionally snowed, the lake left to a small group of winter rowers and resident waterfowl. The MotoGP weekend at the Mugello circuit in late spring fills every hotel within fifteen kilometers.