Pistoia
30 km  from Versilia

.The origin of the city of Pistoia is linked to the northward expansion of the Roman state, although one cannot exclude the possibility of previous settlements by other peoples such as the Etruscans, whose presence here is suggested by some archaeological artifacts found near the present day piazza del Duomo . At the beginning of the second century before Christ, when the Romans engaged in a bitter war against the Ligurian peoples in the Appenine hills, Pistoia was probably a fortified city (oppidum) that served as a supply post for the legions. lts name Pistoria, Pistoriae or Pistorium may be indicative of this role because pistoria in Latin denotes the oven used for baking bread.

With the extension of the Cassia road as far as Lucca, Pistoia consolidated its importance in the territory even though the only notable event that involved the city was the defeat of Cataline and his followers in an undefined locality of the ager pistoriensis in January 62 B.C.. In the fifth century Pistoia became a bishopric and was brutally sacked by the Radagaiso Goths (405 B.C.), The later Lombard rule was important for the city which, because of its vicinity to the Byzantine border, took on a primary strategic role and became a gastaldato  - a compartment ruled by a viceroy - that answered directly to the king. In this period Pistoia was surrounded by a city wall  and the center of the city was organized around the curtis domini regis . Confirmation of the city's prominence can be seen in the authorization to mint a silver coin: the Pistoian tremisse. During the eighth century the important religious institutions (n.27/30/31) that had been built outside the city wall marked the direction of new urban development while in the next century the city's political life was organized around the bishop's court .Little is known about the domination of the Franks that followed Lombard rule nor of the Ottolingian period when Pistoia, too, was caught up in the development of the western world that was characterized by a closed economy and a feudal kind of political system.  

The Guidi and Cadolingi Counts rivaled with the bishop for control over the city. The new millennium brought changes in the political institutions; in 1105 the city was ruled by consuls, the most ancient form of democratic rnagistracy, and in 1158 the podestà or governor  curbed the power of the bishop who had built his fortified palazzo near the cathedral .
In 1177 the city passed its first statute, one of the oldest in Italy. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Pistoia distinguished itself for its strong economic growth; as a consequence the city carne to control a large territory that exceeded what is today the province of Pistoia.

In this period, perhaps its most glorious one, the city took on the Romanesque appearance that is still today its main characteristic and a new city wall was built. Civic life was disrupted, however, first by the struggles between opposing Guelf and Ghibelline factions and later between White and Black parties.
The thirteenth century was a moment of serious political crisis and Pistoia found itself caught between the two opposing powers of Florence and Lucca. There were many battles with these two cities; in the early fourteenth century the alliance of the two resulted in one of the most painful pages in the city's history: the siege of 1306.
Throughout the century, Pistoia tried to free itself but was placed under the rule first of Uguccione della Faggiola, Vinceguerra Panciatichi and Robert d'Anjou and then under Castruccio Castracani who ruled for Lucca, in mid century, just when it seemed like Pistoia was going to win back its autonomy, it entered the Fiorentine sphere of influence, having been seriously dirninished both demographically and economically by the disastrous plagues of 1 348 and 1400