In the Pistoia Mountains, driving along the uphill road from Gavinana to Pratorsi, at about 1000 m above sea level, you arrive at a plain called Pian dei Termini, where the Astronomical Observatory of the Pistoia Mountains is located.
Built in 1991, the Astronomical Observatory consists of two domes of 5 meters in diameter which house respectively a telescope of 40 cm in diameter and one of 60 cm, which allow both observation of the sun and night observation of the sky.
The management of the Observatory is entrusted to the members of the GAMP, a group of amateur astronomers founded in 1981, that promotes educational initiatives but are also engaged in scientific research and mapping of new asteroids. In addition, in 2015 the so-called "Park of the Stars" was also inaugurated, a garden in which works by artists Silvio Viola and Andrea Dami were installed, inviting the visitor to make a "planetary journey".

San Marcello - Astronomical Observatory of the Pistoia Mountains

Opening times and entrance ticket 

Open to the public all months of the year for sky observation at the following times: Friday and Saturday from 21:00
In the months of July and August 2022, open to the public for night observations every Monday, Friday and Saturday at 21:00
Daytime visits for sun observation are also possible with special optical filters on Thursdays from 10:00
Reservations required at the Municipal Library at 0573621289 (open in the following hours: from Monday to Saturday 9:00-12:30 and from Monday to Friday also in the afternoon 14:30-18:00). If you need to modify or cancel your reservation during periods of closure of the Municipal Library, call 3473213290.

Entirely renovated in 2018, the Piaggio Museum has a surface area of 5.000 m², with more than 250 pieces exhibited.

A long journey that begins when Italy was still in black and white: it was in fact the spring of 1946 when the first Vespa, the legendary 98cc, left the factory in Pontedera. Almost eighty years have passed and the Vespa has become one of the most successful Italian icons. 

The models produced, records beaten and then exceeded again, and the raids all around the world with the Vespa,  help to fully understand its strength, or rather the charm of the sassy two-wheeler. The Vespa is not only a commercial success, but an event that involves the history of customs. In the years of the “Dolce Vita”, Vespa became synonymous with scooter, foreign reporters described Italy as “the country of the Vespa” and the Vespa’s role in customs, not only Italian, is documented by the presence of the vehicle in hundreds of movies. It is a story that continues today. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in “Roman Holiday” (1953) were the first of a long series of international actors and actresses who, over the years, have been taken by the most famous scooter in the world, appearing in films ranging from “Quadrophenia” to “American Graffiti”, from “The Talented Mr. Ripley” to “102 Dalmatians”, not to mention “Dear Diary” or the recent “Alfie” with Jude Law, “The lnterpreter” with Nicole Kidman, and the blockbuster “Transformers”. Today, Vespa is more than ever a global brand, a true citizen of the world.

Museo Piaggio

Viale R. Piaggio, 7 

56025 - Pontedera (PI)

Both on your own and guided visits must be booked on the website where the entrance times are also indicated

☞ https://www.museopiaggio.it

It is located in the center of Carmignano and tells the story of the wine produced in this area, a story wisely represented by about 800 fine bottles, cabrei and ancient maps of farms and estates, agricultural tools and finds testifying to the fame of Carmignano wine from ancient times to today. The most important document is undoubtedly the regulation of the Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici which established strict production standards for Carmignano wine, an example of how the times in the denomination of controlled origin were anticipated. 

Museo della Vite e del Vino di Carmignano

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, 2 

59015 Carmignano 

Free entry

Visits upon reservation at  +39 055 8712468

The Pisa Charterhouse in Calci is a vast monumental complex that rises on the slopes of Monte Pisano, a few kilometers from Pisa. Founded in 1366 by a Carthusian family, the complex was enlarged between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and today is a splendid Baroque monument set in a highly suggestive landscape. Originally called "dark", the Calci valley was renamed Val Graziosa (full of grace) following the foundation of the monastic complex.

Today the Charterhouse hosts two distinct museums: the Charterhouse, abandoned by the few remaining monks in 1972, became the National Museum of the Monumental Charterhouse of Calci; while in 1979 the western part of the complex was granted in perpetual and free use to the University of Pisa, which founded the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa.

The presence of the two museums within the Charterhouse complex certainly make it a unique reality on the national scene, an exceptional place where amazement and enchantment mix with science, history, art and nature. Although the two museum institutions are located in different parts of the complex and have two different thematic and educational profiles, their apparently so different events and collections are inextricably intertwined with the fascinating history of the building that houses them.

The visit to the National Museum is an evocative journey into the world of the Carthusians, in environments that still amaze today with their magnificence and splendor of the decorations. The Certosa looks like a beautiful baroque style church with valuable frescoes and many paintings housed in the various chapels adorned with stuccos, statues and various vestments. The tour of the Certosa lasts about one hour and is bound by a guided tour at a cost of € 6 per person, with the possibility of free admission for some categories. The guide will illustrate the moments of the monks' day, discovering the solitary life they led, made up of rigor, meditation and contemplation. You can visit the apartments, the refectory for Sunday lunches, the garden, the monumental cloister and many other rooms, one more beautiful than the other.

Open from Tuesday to Sunday, with reservations required on +39 050 938430

Accompanied tours in Italian at: 9.00, 10.00, 11.30, 12.30, 14.00, 15.30, 17.00, 18.00 

Sunday (and holidays) at 9.00, 10.00, 11.30, 12.30

Tickets: Full € 6.00. Reduced € 3.00

Closed on Mondays, 1st January, 25th December

Calci, Pisa - Natural History Museum 

Today the Charterhouse hosts two distinct museums: the Charterhouse, abandoned by the few remaining monks in 1972, became the National Museum of the Monumental Charterhouse of Calci; while in 1979 the western part of the complex was granted in perpetual and free use to the University of Pisa, which founded the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa.

The tour of the Natural History Museum winds through the Certosa in the most "humble" rooms, those used by lay monks in their daily work: cellars, warehouses, oil mill, carpentry, barn and so on. These premises take on a new life by hosting the prestigious collections of the Museum, the result of almost 500 years of history: on the ground floor, in the “Chamber of Wonders” period artifacts from all over the world are exhibited; upstairs there are two splendid sections with numerous species of very well embalmed mammals and beautiful dioramas at the end of the hall. Finally, on the upper floor you will find the museum of marine cetaceans, where there are dozens of skeletons of… monstrous dimensions! These are unique collections of historical and scientific importance, which include finds from zoology, paleontology and mineralogy, as well as live animals housed in the largest freshwater aquarium in Italy.

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is organized into two exhibition sectors, one which includes permanent exhibitions (Historical Gallery, Museum Garden, Gallery of Amphibians and Reptiles, Gallery of Mammals, Hall of Archaeocetes, Gallery of Cetaceans, Room of the Evolution of 'Man, Mineral Gallery, Room "The Earth between myth and science", Gallery of geological eras, Dinosaur Room, Room of the Evolution of Birds) and the other which includes the Aquarium and the Temporary Exhibition and the Room of the prehistory of Monte Pisano.

Permanent Exhibitions Entrance:

Full: € 8.00 

Reduced (from 6 to 18 years and over 65): € 6.00 

Family (1 adult + 1 child): € 8.00

 Free for: children up to 6 years of age, people with disabilities and their caregivers.

Aquarium entrance and temporary exhibition:

Full: € 8.00 

Reduced (from 6 to 18 years and over 65): € 6.00 

Family (1 adult + 1 child): € 8.00 

Free for children up to 6 years of age, people with disabilities and their carers

Entrance Permanent exhibitions, Aquarium and temporary exhibition:

Full: € 14.00 

Reduced (from 6 to 18 years and over 65): € 10.00 

Family (1 adult + 1 child): € 14.00 

Free for children up to 6 years of age, people with disabilities and their caregivers.

The museum was set up in the rooms next to the Church of San Bartolomeo in 1995, thanks to the commitment of the Association Museum of Farming Culture. It stands therefore in the heart of the town of Casore del Monte, mentioned in documents from as early as the 8th century, which still retains its ancient conformation as a fortified town.

The Church was probably first founded as a chapel inside the castle, whose old tower can still be partly recognized in the style of the bell tower. The Church and bell tower are situated in the highest part of the town where the keep was usually built as it was the last refuge within the town walls in the case of surrender.

The ethnological museum was created from the desire to document a past that has kept the entire area vital and alive, a past that marked the rhythm of the daily life of the inhabitants of the town, who lived in this suggestive countryside. Thanks to the important exhibits on display in the museum, we can once more follow a moment in the world of agriculture that is only apparently distant in time. The dominating activities were linked to the tillage of the land. We can therefore admire a forage cutting machine, a seed drill, a plough, some still in working order and fascinating for their simple structure, especially if we compare them with our modern and completely mechanized equipment. 

Museum of Peasant Culture

Piazza della Chiesa 5

Casore del Monte - Marliana

Tel. 0587 55245  3802935644

Opening time

10-12 / 16-19.30 Saturday and Sunday (July and August)

10-12 / 15.30-19.00 Sunday (September and June)

Free entry

Giuseppe Giusti, poet and man of letters in the Tuscany of the Grand Dukes, was born in this house at Monsummano Terme in 1809.

Plain and severe, with the main entrance situated directly on the ground floor, the house was built by his paternal grandfather between 1791 and 1793. A small garden, much smaller than it was originally, surrounds the building and still shows traces of what was probably its 19th century lay-out, including a Neo Classical well. The rooms inside are decorated with paintings in tempera, while the subject matter is always in some way connected to the actual use of the rooms. In fact the entrance hall contains landscapes that create a pleasant outdoor atmosphere, while the rooms that were once the studio, bedrooms and private chapel are decorated with scenes taken from classical and religious texts. The original furniture has been concentrated on the first floor, so as to give a feeling of rooms still being lived in. The second floor, instead, contains a route that reconstructs and illustrates the life and work of Giuseppe Giusti. 

The various documents found inside the house have been grouped together here alongside reproductions of others preserved in the local Libraries and Archives. The museum route has been further enriched by the room of Italian 19th century poetry, a suggestive environment that offers visitors the chance to listen to verses by some of the most important poets of the 19th century. The voices are accompanied by an image that moves around the entire room, forcing the

eye to follow it, while the mind is absorbed by the words and their fascinating meaning. 

National Museum of Casa Giusti

Viale Vincenzo Martini, 18 51015 Monsummano Terme (PT)

Tel. +39 0572 950960

Opening time and tickets

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday entrance only with accompanied visits from 8.00  am to 2 pm and from 3 pm to  6.00 pm for a maximum of 10 people per group.

Closed: Monday and Tuesday.

Free entry.

If you want to give your children an idea of how the ballroom and the bedroom of a princess could look like, I suggest you to visit the Palazzo Mansi in Lucca.

Due to its characteristics and its prestigious furniture  Palazzo Mansi can be considered the "Museum of the patrician residence of Lucca." The building acquired its present appearance in the eighties-nineties of the seventeenth century, following the regrouping of existing medieval buildings owned by the Mansi family, who became one of the most eminent families of the city thanks to a flourishing mercantile activity. The task of building a dwelling adequate to the rank of the lineage was entrusted to the Lucchese Raffaello Mazzanti, while the interior decorations were made by fresco painters from Bologna and Florence.

On the main floor, the music hall and the three salons with the alcove are the main reason to visit the museum, thanks to the wealth of Flemish seventeenth century tapestries that cover the walls, the eighteenth-century silk embroideries of the bedroom, and the scenographic  decorations in carved and gilded wood.

A rich art gallery forms an integral part of the Museum (among 83 paintings, there is the famous Portrait of Young Man of Pontormo, 1525) which was donated to the city by King Leopold II of Lorraine at the time of the annexation of Lucca to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, placed in the spaces where originally the picture gallery of Mansi was located, dispersed mostly in the second half of nineteenth century.

On the ground floor, previously destined for the summer stay of the family members, is on a weaving workshop that recreates rustic techniques and decorative motifs of a traditional production of Lucca. 

National Museum of Palazzo Mansi 

Via Galli Tassi 43 

55100 Lucca 

Opening time

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, first and third Sunday of the month 9.00-19.30 (last admission 18.00).

Wednesday 12.00-19.30 (last admission 18.00)

Saturday 25 June 12.00-19.30 (last admission 18.00)

Closed 

Mondays, January 1, December 25.
 

Entrance 

Full price € 4.00, reduced € 2.00; 

Free admission for persons under 18 years.

It was created in the 1970’s on a spontaneous initiative of the people of Rivoreta, a tiny village at the foot of Mount Libro Aperto and, over the years, it has been transformed into a real itinerary describing everyday life of the people of the Apennines from past centuries, to the present days.

It displays objects of work and everyday life in the mountains, that were stored in the attics or preserved in the stables, beyond images, evocations, sounds and stories.

A snapshot of the life, habits and traditions of the Mountain, reflected into objects that were once in common use in homes, work tools, witnesses of agricultural, pastoral activities and related to the use of the forest.

Inside the museum, the theme of birth, the aspects of family life, the work of the charcoal burner and the woodcutter, the practice of collecting and transporting them are presented in an interactive way and stimulate the visitor to rediscover the handcrafting dimension, now so distant from our world.

Children are invited to free their creativity, reflecting on the theme of recycling, since reused materials can become new colorful toys, inspired by those of the past.

The Wool Section has been set up in an ancient restored metato (dryer for chestnut), which houses a large early twentieth century loom with related accessories; here the visitor can try to weave, as the locals once did.

The museum can also be visited by the blind thanks to the innovative walk-assistant technology.

Museum of the People of the Pistoia Apennines, Rivoreta

Via degli Scoiattoli - Cutigliano

Open in August 2022

from Thursday to Sunday from 3.30 to 6.30 pm

also open on August 15th

In September open Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 6 pm

Winter closure from October.

Admission by donation

Toll-free number 800 974102

The Museum of  the City and the Territory is situated in the Osteria dei Pellegrini  (Hosterly Of the Pilgrims). This building was in fact once used to give hospitality to the pilgrims who came to worship the imago of the Madonna of the Miracle at the Sanctuary of Fontenuova on the opposite side of the square. Constructed between 1607 and 1616, the building has been put to various uses over the years and therefore considerably altered. It has even hosted the town prisons, one of the cells can in fact still be seen inside. Inaugurated in 1998, the museum is divided into various sectors, each of which manages to express the  interchangeability between man and nature that has always existed in the area of the Nievole Valley. The samples of the various local types of rock are displayed in such a way as to show their use in the construction of important buildings in Florence and Pistoia. Recordings of the sounds of the marshes are part of a special section complete with a punt and a skiff, that shows how man has managed to exploit the swampy area to the full and in fact obtain remarkable advantages from it. The museum also dedicates two important sections to the miracle of the Madonna della Fontenuova. The first illustrates sacred art and the religious fervor of the population, while the second contains the treasures of the Sanctuary and boasts some priceless objects, including a 17th century crown in gold leaf, set with jewels that was donated by the Medici Grand Duke. Further rooms are dedicated to the discovery and exploration of the thermal springs at the Grotta Giusti and to the local economic activities.

Museum of the City and Territory of Monsummano Terme

Piazza Ferdinando Martini 1

Monsummano Terme PISTOIA

tel. +39 0572 954 463

museoterritorio@ comune.monsummano-terme.pt.it

Opening times

Free entrance

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9am to 1 pm

Tuesday and Thursday from 9 am to 1 pm and from 4 pm to 6 pm

In Vellano there is a very special small museum, which preserves the memories of an activity that was once very important for the area: the Ethnographic Historical Museum of the Miner and Quarryman. It is thanks to the passion of Publio Biagini, the son of a stonemason, that the museum was conceived, set up and opened in the summer of 1999, in honor of his father and of a whole host of these 'stone workers' who, thanks to the their hard work had made Vellano a renowned center.

The processing of pietra serena was essential for 130 local families and for the entire economy of the village, and up to the 1970s, about 60 quarries were still active.

Biagini with great enthusiasm collects minerals and for many years he was responsible for the mineralogical sector of the Museum of Natural and Archaeological Sciences of Pescia.

After retirement, he bought and set up the premises of the Museum with a collection of lithic finds, arrowheads, Cretan and Egyptian lamps and various tools displayed to guide us towards the work of the miner and quarryman.

About 11 thousand samples of objects related to mining and quarrying archeology are exhibited in the museum.

In a case we also find some beautiful iridescent minerals that, when illuminated by an ultraviolet lamp, allow you to see the splendid colors emitted by the stones.

There is also a knitted sock made up of two parts, one with greater wear, the lower part, which could be changed more often and the upper part, with a longer life.

Next to it is a boot made of leather, wood and leftover car tires.

There is also a mannequin showing the work of the stonemason, with all the tools around him, and a mannequin showing the work in the mine, also with specialized tools.

Hanging on the wall there is also the big bottle to bring drinking water in the quarry.

Observing all these objects we perceive the hard life of the past, and everything that for us today is a relatively simple activity, whith with simple objects and tools to which we almost do not give any importance, once was a very laborious activity, to be conquered with great sweat and fatigue.

A nice dive into the past to make us reconsider some advantages of the present.

La Miniera di Publio - Historical Ethnographic Museum of the Miner and Quarryman

Via 17 Agosto 1944 n.10/A 

51017 Vellano - Pescia (PT)

Telephone:  330 910517

e mail: laminieradipublio@libero.it

Reservation recommended

The Museum is open every day  from  Monday to Saturday, by apponintment from 9.00 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 5 pm.

Free entrance

The former Psychiatric Hospital of Maggiano is located near Lucca. A highly suggestive place that has known so much suffering mitigated by the great psychiatrist Mario Tobino (Viareggio, 16 January 1910 - Agrigento, 11 December 1991) to whom the foundation that takes care of this place is dedicated.

The Mario Tobino Foundation has the aim of conserving, enhancing, but above all making use of and developing the great cultural heritage of Tobino who lived for over forty years inside the asylum structure, as head physician of the women's ward. Mario Tobino worked feverishly to make life in Maggiano more humane, experimenting with new treatment methods and, thanks to these, favoring the inclusion of the sick in the sewing and spinning workshops, trying to give as many guests as possible a occupation that made them feel useful and humanized their lives.

You can see the places where he worked, his bedroom and his small studio - Mario Tobino lived in the asylum, he rarely left his patients - the objects that belonged to him allow us to see this great man up close. A forerunner of modern psychiatry, who together with Basaglia wanted to treat the insane with humanity.

Among other things, there is also a room with dried seaweed. When some patients had severe deliriums they were left in this room to wrap themselves in seaweed for even days. The seaweed gave heat, it wasn't dangerous, they could throw it in the air and see it fall back to give space to inner visions. They stayed in this room for up to twenty days. It was understood that the serious crisis had passed because the patients at a certain point discovered that they were naked. The perception of one's own nudity made it clear that the patient had returned to reality.

Mario Tobino used to say that there is a little madness in each of us.

In the private rooms of the great psychiatrist, his books also came to life, including "The free women of Magliano" which has been translated into many languages.

The Mario Tobino Foundation organizes guided tours every last Saturday of the month

☞ www.fondazionemariotobino.it

Fondazione Mario Tobino

Via Fregionaia 692

55100 Maggiano LU

Telefono: + 39 0583 327243