Internationally renowned amateur astronomers
Where to start? The sun, the stars or the planets? Since 1990, the universe has been closer to us here in the Pistoia mountains. An observatory was opened in Pian de 'Termini that allows you to see the wonders of the sky. Which? Mars, Jupiter, Saturn with its rings and, of course, the Moon. There are two domes and two telescopes (one 40 and one 60 cm in diameter). There is also a series of educational and didactic activities that take place thanks to the collaboration with the Group Astrofili Montagna Pistoiese, an association founded in 1980 due to local passion for the subject. In 2019, it received the international Shoemaker Neo Grant award which is awarded for merits in the search for asteroids.
With your feet on the ground
Beyond this, it is also nice to appreciate what surrounds us here on earth. This is why the Ecomuseum of the Pistoiese Mountains was created. Six outdoor itineraries, museums, educational centers and historical artifacts allow you to get to know the Pistoia Mountains through traces of the relationship between man and the environment that have been left over centuries. Environment essentials of water and forest have provided raw material and energy, used by the inhabitants for simple and ingenious production including ironworks, iceboxes and mills. And, if you don't suffer from vertigo, there is also the suspension bridge that is 227 meters long, 36 high and 80 centimeters wide. Until 2006, it was the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world.
Our hero
In 1530 in Gavinana, the brave captain of the Republic of Florence, Francesco Ferrucci, was killed by the mercenary captain, Maramaldo, after the city had repulsed the imperial assault seven times under his leadership. "You kill a dead man" has become a famous phrase and recalls how Ferrucci was killed by Maramaldo when, while dying, he could no longer defend himself. The Pistoian mountains have always considered him a hero and in 1908 a committee was set up to create a museum intended to house the memories of Francesco Ferrucci. It took another committee and had to wait until 1929, but finally on the occasion of the celebrations for the fourth centenary of the siege of Florence, a house was restored and donated to the municipality in the square of Gavinana. It is here, according to tradition, that Ferrucci would have been killed by Maramaldo. Since 1931, that house has been the Ferrucciano Museum.