Things to Do in Pistoia, Italy: Walking Guide

Pistoia is a Tuscan city of Romanesque churches, historic palaces, museums and compact streets centred on Piazza del Duomo. It is worth visiting for the way its religious, civic and artistic heritage comes together in a walkable historic centre, with further museums and estates to discover beyond it. Neywo has a free audio guide for Pistoia with 103 narrated places.

Part of Tuscany and often explored alongside better-known Tuscan destinations, Pistoia offers a concentrated introduction to the region’s history and art. The city’s main sights are close enough to connect on foot, while several museums and collections give you reasons to look beyond the central square.

What to see in Pistoia

Piazza del Duomo and Pistoia Cathedral

Begin in Piazza del Duomo, the centre of Pistoia’s religious and civic life. The square brings together Pistoia Cathedral, its bell tower, the San Giovanni in Corte Baptistery and former civic buildings.

Pistoia Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of San Zeno, is the city’s principal Catholic place of worship and the seat of the bishop of the Diocese of Pistoia. Probably built in the tenth century, it has a Romanesque façade modelled on those of San Bartolomeo and Sant’Andrea. Marble statues of Saint Zeno and Saint Jacopo stand at the two ends of the gable.

Inside, the cathedral has three naves, a raised presbytery and a crypt. Centuries of alterations were followed by restoration work intended to return the building to its earlier forms. The cathedral was raised to the status of a minor basilica in 1965.

San Giovanni in Corte Baptistery

The San Giovanni in Corte Baptistery, or Battistero di San Giovanni in Corte, stands in Piazza del Duomo and is one of Pistoia’s defining religious landmarks. Its position makes it a natural part of any first walk through the historic centre, alongside the cathedral and bell tower.

Palazzo degli Anziani and the Civic Museum of Pistoia

The Palazzo degli Anziani houses the Civic Museum of Pistoia, also known as the Museo Civico. It is the city’s first and most important museum institution, with a collection devoted to ancient art.

The museum is one of several cultural sites gathered behind and around the cathedral. Its setting in a historic civic building helps connect Pistoia’s artistic heritage with the institutions that shaped the city.

Church of Sant’Andrea and Giovanni Pisano’s pulpit

The Church of Sant’Andrea, or Pieve di Sant’Andrea, dates back to the eighth century and remains the seat of the parish of Sant’Andrea. Its most celebrated feature is the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano.

Pisano signed the pulpit in 1301. The work gives this Romanesque church one of its most distinctive interiors and is one of the essential stops for anyone interested in what to see in Pistoia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Humility

The Basilica of Our Lady of Humility, also known as the Basilica della Madonna dell’Umiltà, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Consecrated in 1582, it is both a minor basilica and an important place of Marian devotion.

Its most striking feature is the great sixteenth-century dome. It measures about twenty-five metres across and rises fifty-nine metres high, making it a major element of Pistoia’s skyline.

San Bartolomeo in Pantano

San Bartolomeo in Pantano is an eighth-century church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew the Apostle. Its name recalls the landscape that once surrounded it: “Pantano” means marshy ground and refers to an area that became muddy after the course of the Brana stream was moved in the fourteenth century.

The church is close to several other historic sites in eastern Pistoia and fits naturally into a longer walk through the city’s religious heritage.

Museo dello Spedale del Ceppo

The Museo dello Spedale del Ceppo occupies the former city hospital, founded in the thirteenth century. The institution remained Pistoia’s city hospital until 21 July 2013, when it was replaced by the new Ospedale San Jacopo in the southern part of the city.

The name “Ceppo” is explained by two traditions. One tells of a tree stump that miraculously blossomed in winter and an apparition of the Madonna directing Antimo and Bendinella to the site where the hospital should be founded. Another links the name to a hollow chestnut stump used to collect offerings.

Museums, palaces and collections

Pistoia’s historic centre includes several smaller or more specialised cultural institutions. Palazzo Sozzifanti, also known as Palazzo Buontalenti, is a historic palace, while Casa-Studio Fernando Melani is a house-museum where home and studio come together.

The Centro di Documentazione Giovanni Michelucci is an archival institution associated with a group of collections that includes the Diocesan Museum and the Museum of Embroidery. The Diocesan Museum presents sacred art in Pistoia. In Rospigliosi Palace, the Museo Clemente Rospigliosi displays precious furniture and furnishings, along with paintings, most of them from the seventeenth century. The Museum of Embroidery presents embroidered works from the seventeenth through the twentieth century, as well as the tools and techniques used in Pistoia’s traditional embroidery.

The Ex Oratorio di San Desiderio is another part of the city’s architectural heritage. Since December 2014, it has been managed by Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities through the Polo museale della Toscana, an institution that became the Direzione regionale Musei in December 2019.

Fattoria di Celle

Outside the city, in the area of Santomato, Fattoria di Celle—also called the Gori Collection or Villa di Celle—combines a fifteenth-century villa with a collection of contemporary art. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the estate has been home to the Gori Collection.

Many works were created specifically for the villa and its park. Their relationship with the landscape is central to the experience, and the estate is considered one of the most important examples of Land Art in Italy.

Ghiacciaia della Madonnina

The Ghiacciaia della Madonnina, also known as the Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese, belongs to a museum institution in Tuscany. It offers another perspective on the territory around Pistoia and broadens a visit beyond the city’s churches, palaces and art collections.

Fondazione Pistoiese Jorio Vivarelli

The Fondazione Pistoiese Jorio Vivarelli includes the Casa-studio Vivarelli on Via di Felceti. The building is an interesting example of twentieth-century architecture in Tuscany and adds a modern layer to Pistoia’s cultural landscape.

A Pistoia self-guided walking tour with Neywo

Neywo offers four walking tours and one bus route in Pistoia. The walks range from 0.5 km and 50 minutes to 2.93 km and 102 minutes, with between 8 and 12 narrated stops. The bus route covers 2.5 km in 11 minutes and includes 7 stops.

The tours focus on different sides of the city:

• Piazza del Duomo: 1.12 km, 86 minutes and 12 stops, including the baptistery, cathedral, civic palaces, Piazza della Sala and San Giovanni Fuoricivitas.
• Giovanni Pisano’s pulpit and Vasari’s dome: 1.95 km, 94 minutes and 12 stops, including the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility, Casa-Studio Fernando Melani and the Church of Sant’Andrea.
• The flowering stump: Ospedale del Ceppo and eastern Pistoia: 2.93 km, 102 minutes and 12 stops, including the former hospital, San Bartolomeo in Pantano and Fortezza Santa Barbara.
• Museums and palaces behind the cathedral: 0.5 km, 50 minutes and 8 stops, including the Civic Museum, Centro di Documentazione Giovanni Michelucci and Palazzo Sozzifanti.
• The city shuttle past Pistoia’s pulpit and hospital: a 2.5 km bus route lasting 11 minutes, with 7 stops.

Download Neywo and explore Pistoia at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages, making it a practical Pistoia audio guide for exploring the city independently. When you continue through Tuscany, you can also discover Pisa, Siena or Montecatini Terme.