Before this trip we had never heard of Pistoia, couldn't even find it in our Lonely Planet Italy book. It is right on the train line between Florence and Lucca. We made it our home base for exploring Northern Tuscany and it was a good pick.
The way John puts it - there are two Italies, the First Italy where tourists outnumber Italians, the Second where Italians outnumber tourists. Pistoia is a very good example of the Second Italy. The historic center is mostly pedestrian, a steady stream of locals going to and fro on their quotidian routes.
To get from Volterra to Pistoia, we take a bus to Pontedera, then a train to Florence, then a train to Pistoia. Here is shot from Firenze Rifredi Station, the closest we will get to Florence (First Italy) on this trip.
Our first impressions of Pistoia are the Fiat 500 Club meeting, the stairwell railing in our apartment building, and the bike lane on the way to the Esselunga Supermarket.
The Presto Speza guns at the supermarket were very cool. You use the guns to scan/buy items directly into your digital cart. There are random "re-reading the cart" checks when you pay. Pretty cool. Note that we did NOT use the guns. Maybe I'll see this at Harris Teeter when we get back to Raleigh. ;-)
The streets are lively in the evenings between 5 and 7pm.
It's the Saturday evening before Palm Sunday. There's an informal procession to the Duomo and then a Mass to bless olive branches.
Our apartment is those three windows on the top floor.
Every evening we head out for the passeggiata.
And check out churches that may be open.
It seems we always end up passing the Duomo and its baptistry and campanile.
City Hall is adjacent to the Duomo
Pistoia is also home of the La Visitazione by Luca della Robbia. Sublime. Now displayed in a deconsecrated church.
And there are three 13th century carved pulpits. Here's one.
And this 16th century terracotta frieze.
Pistoia was a prosperous town in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, so in addition to the Medieval and Renaissance art, there are more than several Art Nouveau buildings like this galeria.
And lamp posts.
And this abandoned factory facade.
And more.
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
Uzbekistan: Bukhara
Bukhara was a major city on the Silk Road. It had been the capital of various dynasties. Many of the buildings we see today originated duri...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Last week we hauled our canoe and tent over to Merchants Millpond State Park and enjoyed some very fine camping and paddling. One day we p...
-
Dubai, the most populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an enigma for us. Dubai is now among the top 5 most visited cities in t...
-
Tashkent, Uzbekistan is our entry into Central Asia. The Silk Road had been a destination for us for decades. Besides the usual concerns for...
-
Khiva is really the first stop on our upstream tour of the Silk Road. An important post on the Silk Road, Khiva was razed and rebuilt many t...
-
From TashKent, we took a flight west to Nukus, located in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. Nukus itself is a city establi...
-
We spent some extra time in Tashkent, because we wanted to catch the Persian New Year, Nowruz , in Tashkent, known as Spring Equinox to the ...
-
Abus Dhabi seems more familiar than Dubai. There is a recognizable downtown. There are city parks connecting downtown to the sea. There are ...
1 comment:
Great find!
Post a Comment