ABETONE

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario del Verde - Orto Botanico Forestale dell`Abetone
Abetone Forestal Botanical Garden was established in the second half of the 1980s. It stretches over an extensive area covered with forests and rich in beech, fir and long-stemmed trees in Pistoia Apennines. The botanical garden comprises also a wetland with a small peat-bog and a small rock garden with local flower species. The botanical garden is the point of departure of two itineraries leading to the forests of Val Sestaione and the natural reserve of red fir in Campolino. Fontana Vaccaia Learning Centre houses equipment for studying plants, books and other specific bibliographical material.


CUTIGLIANO

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario della Vita Quotidiana - Museo della Gente dell`Appennino Pistoiese
The Museum of Pistoia Apennines People documents the material culture of the people living in Pistoia Apennines through working implements and everyday objects from the 19th to the 20th century, collected by the people in the area. Every year, on the last Sunday of July, the traditional trades and activities of the area are re-enacted.


LARCIANO

Museo Civico di Larciano Castello
The museum is housed in the citadel of the castle of Larciano, an ancient property of the Count Guidi family that was refurbished several times between the 11th and the 12th century. On display are finds from eastern Valdinievole and other areas of Italy dating from prehistoric times to the late Renaissance, especially ceramics and majolica everyday objects and metal items.


MONSUMMANO TERME

Museo del Santuario di Maria Santissima della Fontenuova
The museum is housed in the spaces adjoining the sanctuary of Maria Santissima della Fontebuona. On show are a collection of votive offerings associated with the cult of the Madonna after whom the church is named, gold items and sacred furnishings from the 17th century to the present day.

Museo della Città e del Territorio
The Museum of the City and Territory is housed in the ancient Osteria dei Pellegrini, where the pilgrims going to the sanctuary of Maria Santissima della Fontebuona could rest and refresh. The tavern was built between 1607 and 1616 by order of Grand Duke Ferdinand I de` Medici. The museum is divided into various sections devoted to geology, palaeontology, archaeology, environment and history, Fucecchio marshes, the grand-ducal farms, sacred art and popular religion, the history of Monsummano, thermal baths, production and industry and the treasure of Maria Santissima della Fontebuona. On display are samples of local rocks, fossils, a collection of original historical charts and an atlas from the 18th-19th centuries and reproductions of 16th- and 17th-century maps, working implements and photos.

Museo Nazionale di Casa Giusti
The museum is set up in the house where the poet Giuseppe Giusti was born in 1809. The rooms, simply and elegantly furnished in keeping with the romantic taste prevailing in the first half of the 19th century, offer insights into the life of Tuscan wealthy family of the time. The memorabilia of Giuseppe Giusti and his family on display include a portrait of the poet by Giuseppe Bezzuoli.

Villa Medicea di Montevettolini
The villa was built in the late 16th century on the hill of Montevettolini, on the slopes of Montalbano, by order of Ferdinand I de` Medici and was continually enlarged up to the beginning of the following century. At that time the villa incorporated the stronghold and part of the city walls. As a result, the villa resembled a small fort. A place of sojourn during the hunting season, the villa played also a fundamental role in the administration of the Medicean estates in Valdinievole.


MONTECATINI TERME

Raccolta dell`Accademia d`Arte "Dino Scalabrino"
The collection includes works by several important modern and contemporary artists, such as Annigoni, Mirò, Guttuso, Arp, Viani and Chini.


PESCIA

Centro di Documentazione sulla Lavorazione della Carta
The Paper Museum documents the history of paper-making, an activity that has always played an important role in the economic and social life of the area. In the second half of the 18th century Pescia became the Tuscan capital of paper production. The museum, which composes of a Documentation Centre on Paper Manufacture and the former "Le Carte" paper-mill, exhibits tools and devices for the handcrafted production of paper.

Gipsoteca "Libero Andreotti"
The museum has a collection of over 200 works by the Pescia-born sculptor Libero Andreotti, an important artist active in the first decades of the 20th century.

Museo Civico
The museum housed in the 18th-century Palazzo Galeotti exhibits drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, artefacts and documents on local history.

Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali e Archeologia della Valdinievole
Valdinievole Civic Museum of Natural Science and Archaeology was established in the second half of the 1970s. It is divided into sections devoted to palaeontology, mineralogy, geological eras, archaeology, prehistory and zoology. On display are taxidermied animals and fossils and minerals of local, national and foreign provenance. Some of the finds date from the late 19th to the early 20th century.

Museo Storico Etnografico del Minatore e del Cavatore
The Ethnographic Historical Museum of Miners and Quarrymen documents the traditional extraction activity and the working of pietra serena through a collection of mining tools, machinery, chemical reagents and instruments for the identification of the material extracted. Life-size reconstructions of the mine interiors and a collection of minerals extracted in Tuscany complete the exhibition itinerary.

Parco Monumentale di Pinocchio
The theme park is dedicated to Pinocchio, the famous puppet protagonist of the novel by Carlo Lorenzini. In the park are the reconstructions of some of the place where the "Adventures of Pinocchio" are set, as well as a museum and a virtual library entirely devoted to the puppet.


PISTOIA

Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi - Museo della Cattedrale di San Zeno
The museum is housed in Palazzo dei Vescovi, which was built in the late 11th century as an episcopal seat and then enlarged and remodelled in the following centuries. On display are sacred furnishings, liturgical hangings and gold items from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The palace houses also a tactile museum that allows blind people to discover Pistoia architectural treasures, Etruscan funeral stones, 14th-century frescoes and modern works of art.

Casa-Studio "Fernando Melani"
The museum is set up in the house where Fernando Melani was born. Pistoia-born artist Fernando Melani was a major figure on the Italian artistic panorama after World War II. The works on display allow visitors to understand Melani`s entire artistic experience and experimental work through the main art movements of the second half of the 20th century, from "arte povera" to the Conceptual Art and Minimal Art movements. The studio-house has also a rich library.

Centro di Documentazione "Giovanni Michelucci"
The exhibition set up in a room of the town hall documents the activity of the famous Pistoia-born architect and city planner Giovanni Michelucci through a collection of drawings and models. Some of the 900 drawings on display have annotations by the author.

Centro e Fondazione Marino Marini
The museum is housed in the 14th-century former monastery of Tau, which for a long time was the home of the canons of Sant`Antonio Abate. When the order was abolished, at the end of the 18th century, the church was deconsecrated and divided into apartments. An important cycle of frescoes with histories from the Ancient and New Testament and the life of Sant`Antonio Abate was recovered during restoration work in the 1960s. On display in the monastery are drawings, oil paintings, terracotta items, bronze sculptures and the whole collection of graphic art works by Marino Marini.

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario del Ghiaccio - Comparto Produttivo del Ghiaccio della Madonnina
The complex of icehouses and related hydraulic structures used to divert the waters of the Reno River into small lakes where natural ice formed by freezing is part of the Eco-Museum of Pistoia Mountains. The activity was carried on from the middle of the 18th century to the 1930s. The Madonnina icehouse, which was used to preserve ice, is the most interesting element of the complex. The construction of the Strada Regia that connected Pistoia to Modena facilitated the transport of the ice to the Tuscan localities where it was requested.

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario del Ferro - Ferriera Sabatini
The ironworks, which was built in the 16th century by order of Cosimo I de` Medici and until the end of the 18th century was part of the most important ironworking district in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, operated until around 1950. On display are working implements and machinery used for smelting and working iron, as well as a collection of models that reproduce the motions of the old machinery.

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario del Ghiaccio - Polo Didattico del Ghiaccio
The educational centre illustrates the ice production activity from the late 18th to the mid-20th century in Pistoia Apennines through a collection of tools, models relative to the ice-making techniques and photographs.

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario della Vita Quotidiana - Mulino di Giamba e di Berto e la Via del Carbone
The mill was built in the first half of the 19th century and remained in operation until 1947. Visitors are shown the various stages of chestnut processing, from harvesting and drying to grinding in the water mill. The mill is reached through two self-supporting wooden bridges that have been built on the basis of some drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. Along the so-called Charcoal Road visitors can see a coalman`s hut and a charcoal pile and watch, on certain days of the year, demonstrations of how coal is made.

Fortezza di Santa Barbara
Military architect Giovan Battista Bellucci began the construction of the fortress of Santa Barbara in 1539. The new defensive structure was erected on the site of a pre-existing stronghold named after San Barnaba. In 1571 Cosimo I de` Medici, who had already ordered the construction of the fortress three decades before, had it enlarged by Bernardo Buontalenti.

Musei di Palazzo Rospigliosi
Palazzo Rospigliosi, the residence of the family after whom it is named, houses three museums. The Museo Rospigliosi is set up in the rooms of the piano nobile, which still have the original furniture and furnishings. On display are about 50 paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Museo Diocesano exhibits sacred furnishings from the churches of the diocese. On the ground floor is the Museo del Ricamo, which exhibits embroidered fabrics from the 17th to the 20th century. The museum is divided into two sections: one is devoted to liturgical hangings and vestments and the second exhibits personal and household items.

Museo Civico
The museum is housed in Pistoia town hall. On display are paintings on canvas and on wood, sculptures and works of applied art dating from the 13th to the 19th century. The works are from the town`s churches and former monasteries.

Museo del Carbonaio
The Charcoal Burners` Museum was established to document the life and traditions of mountain people, with particular reference to coal gathering and wood cutting activities. Outside the museum are the reconstructions of a charcoal pile and a hut similar to those the coal workers lived in during the working season.

Palazzo Fabroni - Arti Visive Contemporanee
The 18th-century Palazzo Fabroni houses works by important contemporary Italian and foreign artists.

Villa Celle - Collezione Gori
In the 17th century, the Fabroni family, owner of Villa Celle, began modernisation work, which concerned in particular the orchards and the farms and included the construction of nymphaeums and fountains. The "Chinese" aviary and the icehouse were built in the first half of the 19th century. On the same period, Pistoia-born architect Giovanni Gambini was commissioned to transform the garden into the Romantic park that still surrounds the building. The Gori family bought the villa in 1969 and formed there a collection of environmental art, consisting of works by worldwide renowned artists.


PITEGLIO

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario dell`Arte Sacra e della Religiosità Popolare - Museo Diocesano d`Arte Sacra di Popiglio
The three sections that form the museum are housed in three different buildings. The first section is housed in the rectory of the 13th-century church of Santa Maria Assunta and exhibits sculptures, paintings and silver items by artists active in Pistoia Mountains. The second section contains liturgical hangings from local churches, whereas the third and last section is devoted to educational activities.


PONTE BUGGIANESE

Museo del Santuario della Madonna del Buonconsiglio
The museum is annexed to the church of San Michele Arcangelo, a 17th-century building also known as sanctuary of the Madonna del Buonconsiglio. The church houses a famous cycle of frescoes painted by Pietro Annigoni between 1967 and 1976. The museum, which was established when Annigoni finished his work, has also a collection of sacred furnishings dating from the 17th to the 19th century.


QUARRATA

Raccolta d`Arte Sacra della Chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo
The exhibition is housed in the rectory of the church of Ferruccia, which is named after San Filippo and San Giacomo. The church is mentioned in documents dating from the 14th century, but only in 1648 it became a parish church. On display in the museum are liturgical items belonging to the church of Ferruccia that have not been used since the Second Vatican Council. Some explanatory panels highlight the way in which the various objects were used. The exhibition offers an interesting insight into the popular religious practices of a peasant community in Pistoia countryside.

Villa La Magia
Grand Duke Francis I de` Medici purchased Villa La Magia and the adjoining property in 1584. At that time the villa was a sort of a fortalice probably dating to the first half of the 14th century. The new owner commissioned architect Bernardo Buontalenti to remodel the building and transform it into a real country residence. Between the late 17th and the early 18th century the Attavanti family, who had purchased the villa in 1645, renovated and modified the internal layout of the building. In the second half of the 18th century Giulio Giuseppe Amati (the new owner of the estate) built a lemon-house on the eastern side of the garden, exactly opposite the one the Attavanti had built in 1715-1716. The water channelling system and a romantic garden in the eastern part of the estate were realised in the same period.


SAMBUCA PISTOIESE

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario della Pietra - Polo Didattico della Pietra
The Educational Centre for Stone is part of the Eco-Museum of Pistoia Mountains and presents stone-working implements through explanatory panels and other teaching materials. Demonstrations of stone-working techniques are given outdoors. The centre is also the point of departure of three itineraries along which are interesting stone artefacts and structures.


SAN MARCELLO PISTOIESE

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Centro Naturalistico Archeologico dell`Appennino Pistoiese
Pistoia Mountains Naturalist Archaeological Centre is housed in the rooms of the former school of the Società Metallurgica Italiana at Campo Tizzoro. It exhibits palaeontological, zoological and archaeological finds unearthed in the area of San Marcello Pistoiese, as well as a collection of wood specimens and dioramas and models that illustrate the natural and anthropological evolution of the local area.

Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese - Itinerario del Ferro - Museo del Ferro
The Iron Museum is housed in the former school of Pontepetri and illustrates the manufacture of iron in the area between the 19th and 20th century through implements, dioramas, models and documents. In the Learning Garden close to the museum is the reconstruction of a "gorile" (a system for diverting water) that moves the wheels of the ironworks and of the mill.

Museo Ferrucciano
The museum devoted to Francesco Ferrucci is set up in the house on whose threshold he was probably killed in 1530, during the famous battle of Gavinana between the army of the Republic of Florence (leaded by Ferrucci) and the Imperialists supporting Charles V. Each of the four rooms of the museum is devoted to a specific subject: the first exhibits the weapons used during the battle of Gavinana and other period weapons; the second is devoted to Massimo D`Azeglio, who sojourned several times in the area; in the third room are the documents and other material on the life of Francesco Ferrucci that form the Biblioteca Ferrucciana; the fourth and last room of the museum is devoted to the siege of Florence, the cause of the battle of Gavinana. On the display in the room are also flags and garbs of Florence "calcio storico", in remembrance of the match the Florentines played when the city was under siege.