Places to see in ( Pistoia - Italy )
Places to see in ( Pistoia - Italy )
Pistoia is a city in Italy’s Tuscany region. Set around its central Piazza del Duomo are the Cathedral of San Zeno, which has a silver altar, and the octagonal Battistero di San Giovanni in Corte baptistery. Also on the square is the Palazzo dei Vescovi, an 11th-century palace housing a number of museums. On the nearby Piazza della Sala, the Pozzo del Leoncino is a well with a marble frame. Pretty Pistoia sits snugly at the foot of the Apennines. An easy day trip from Pisa, Lucca or Florence, it thoroughly deserved its 2017 status as European City of Culture. A town that has grown well beyond its medieval ramparts, its centro storico is well preserved and stands guardian to striking contemporary art.
Pistoia is a little-known delight. It lies in the tourist heart of Tuscany, a stone's throw from Florence, Lucca and Siena, but tends to get missed out by travellers. This isn't completely surprising. The town is less grand than Florence, less ancient than Siena and less complete than Lucca, and its name doesn't perhaps sound as pretty. Yet Pistoia is a gem. All the ingredients of an old Tuscan city are there - old walls, striped churches, frescoes, medieval watchtowers, arcaded piazzas - packed into a rather small centre.
Pistoia was a smallish Roman town, notable mainly for a nearby battle in which Cicero's great enemy the conspirator Catiline died an outcast and rebel. It flourished in the Middle Ages, getting itself recognised as a pilgrimage site for the cult of Saint James and establishing a form of republican self-government, like several other Tuscan cities. Later rule by Lucca and Florence seems to have done the place no lasting damage. Pistoia was well known for its crafts, and has some claim to the origin of pistol, originally meaning a small weapon. The city fared less well during the tumults of the 19th century and could be described as rather a backwater today, but something of the old colour still remains. There's a medieval-style palio called the Giostra dell'Orso (including processions and a horseback tournament between rival neighbourhoods) in the main piazza on 25th July, while several villages once under the aegis of Pistoia stage their own historical events on other dates in the summer.
Visiting Pistoia’s old town is like taking a journey back in time. In fact, Pistoia is a city with multiple amazing facets, thanks to its elegance and refined beauty. The evidence of the city's Roman origins appears immediately upon entry: an unexpected series of churches, cloisters, palaces and art treasures not only dating back to the ancient past, but to more recent times, as well. Amidst the narrow, Medieval streets and irregularly-shaped piazzas, prestigious palaces and small tower-houses, a surprising city emerges, bearing an innate an discrete charm, perfect for travelers who appreciate quality and slow-paced tourism.
Not far from Pistoia, one reaches Pescia, a town that has a lot to offer to those who passionate for art and nature. The city's origins are Medieval and belong to both banks of the river from which Pescia takes its name: on the right bank, the center's foundation is its characteristic, elongated Piazza, while on the left lies Pescia's religious hub. Among the sights to see, beginning with Porta Fiorentina, one arrives at the Cathedral, re-built at the end of the 17th Century. Just opposite is the Church of San Giuliano, and next to the Cathedral is the Seminary Cloister and the nearby Church of the Oratory of Sant'Antonio Abate, conserving the wooden sculpture The Ugly Saints that dates back to the 13th Century. Also here is the Gipsoteca Libero Andreotti Civic Museum with its plaster cast collection.
Waterways, and chestnut forests, mills and paper mills, remains of ancient walls and picturesque views open onto the valley, making for lovely visits and walks among history and nature: this is Svizzera Pesciatina, located to Pescia's north. It is also known as Valleriana; the former name honors Giovan Carlo Sismondi, historian and economist from Geneva that here found the valley landscapes and colors of the valleys so similar to those of his own Switzerland.
( Pistoia - Italy ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Pistoia . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Pistoia - Italy
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