Description
The city of green tells the story of its typical comfits, created for celebrations and special occasions, when bells start to ring among the many monuments of the amazingly beautiful Piazza del Duomo. We pass through the street that leads to Florence, where an historical Medici villa finds place. Short after, a gluttonous chocolate factory strikes the eye. We start to climb the Montalbano hills, and we stop at a winery managed by a noble family. Here they passionately explain us the particular positioning of the vines for the production of their red Chianti wine.
We reach the top of San Baronto, the land of tireless cyclists, where we slightly move off track to reach a renovated farmhouse with an olive grove developed on many terraces: the oil is as astounding as the landscape. We go down along the hairpin turns and a sign testifies our arrival in Lamporecchio, the land of Brigidino: the biscuit dedicated to Saint Brigida and tastiness for the wayfarers travelling through the area. In Montecatini we relax at the Torretta thermal park and spa. During the golden age of the city, this area was completely dedicated to the spa tourism, nonetheless, it still conveys a wealthy atmosphere. Here we stop to taste the famous wafers.
After a few kilometres, heading towards the coastline, we have a break in Collodi, in particular in the park dedicated to Pinocchio. As a matter of fact, the traditional tale inspired a pasta factory in the province of Pistoia, which created a special kind of pasta “Le Bugie” (literally lies) in likeness of the famous puppet, the talking cricket and the whale. Then we enter the valley of the so-called Switzerland of Pescia. The name derives from a Swiss intellectual that recognized something familiar in the landscapes of the area: from the peaks you can spot the ten castles here and there and the high rows of bean plants: a unique product for its white colour and the peculiarity of the territory.
It’s now the time to climb the mountains, up to reaching the highest peak in Tuscany, the Abetone pass, where the woods shield delicious blueberries for the production of special jams. Downhill – nearby a medieval bridge and the clear waters of a mountain stream – we find an ancient bakery, where we taste some almond and nut biscuits, so good you could not believe. In the meantime, we prepare ourselves for the descent towards the city. From the towers of Serravalle we finally catch sight of the landscape from Valdinievole and Pistoia. We imagine the fratricidal struggles for the territory during the Middle Ages. Today, a small local business decided to start an agricultural brewery using the white and red colours of the coat of arms of the city, ideally bringing us back to the centre of the main square, where everything is born and preserved: beauty and tastiness, too.
