Pistoia - Discover the Italian Capital of Culture 2017
This post was created in collaboration with CCT SeeCity
Our journey started at Firenze Santa Maria train station, we were heading to Pistoia. The Trenitalia train was taking us to the Italian Capital of Culture 2017. It was a quick 30 min journey and once we saw a lot of plants lined up perfectly in thousands of rows outside of our train window- we knew that we arrived at Pistoia - the world famous for producing the huge variety of the ornamental plants.
Pistoia is a hidden gem of Tuscany- beautiful historic Tuscan town without crowds of tourists, delicious food, and wine, it’s one of those places where you get better value for the price in accommodation, food etc. Our trip was short but sweet, in 3 days we discovered 3 Tuscan cities - Pistoia, Florence and Montecatini, staying every night in Pistoia. The location of this town is so convenient to explore the Tuscan region both by car and train.
Food Recommendations
We arrived on Friday evening and straight away went out to the town for a dinner. Friday in August in Pistoia means you can stroll the beautiful medieval streets and choose which place you like to eat. No reservation needed, no queuing -just what you need after a long day traveling, in our case -from Glasgow.
Piazza della Sala is the food square in Pistoia with plenty of choices, I highly recommend to try truffle pasta in Locanda Capitano restaurant - with no doubts it was the best pasta I’ve had in my life (at least by this date) it was heavenly delicious and costed 14 EUR.
Also, Rust Factory bar makes super good Mojitos - it’s just a must have after surviving the day under the sun in 35C heat.
Try the most delicious pistachio and pine gelato in Gelateria Voroni, for only 2 EUR.
Museums
Pistoia has very interesting museums and art galleries to explore, but my favorite landmark discovery was the Bell Tower, which is located in Piazza del Duomo. The only way to get there is to buy a guided tour (7EUR per person) and you get to walk up a few hundreds of steps (which are 900 years old, because the tower was built in the 12th century) , the views over the town you get are so worth the effort going up, and as a BONUS you get some breeze and the 16th century cupola by G.Vasari.
We’d love to come back again and explore more of the Tuscany and I personally would love to visit mountains in Pistoia.
“The location of Pistoia is so convenient to explore the Tuscan region both by car and by train.”
This post was created in collaboration with CCT SeeCity