17km (10 miles) NW of Prato; 35km (21 miles) NW of Florence; 336km (208 miles) N of Rome. 

Pistoia is situated in the foothills of the Apennines. It lies halfway between Pisa and Florence and is apt to be overlooked by tourists because of this. Both these famous cities have infkuenced the hietory of Pistoia, it inherited beautiful Romanesque churches and Gothic sculpture through the influence of the former and the best of the Renaissance from its proximity to the latter. It is a worthwhile stop, for the tourist, with its pretty churches, small but worthy art collections, and well-preserved dark medieval alleyways.  

In 1254, the city’s Ghibelline commune was defeated by Guelf Florence, and this led to rivalry between the Neri and the Bianchi families. Legend has it that while playing with wooden swords a child from one of the families, the legend does not specify which family, hurt his playmate from the other. He was sent to apologize to the injured child’s father, and this worthy cut off the poor boys hand saying, "Iron, not words, is the remedy for sword wounds." The consequent conflict spread to Florence as noble households waged secret wars and occasional all-out street battles against one another. This political plague was so distressing and devious that Michelangelo later labelled the Pistoiese as the "enemies of Heaven."

Pistoians already had a nasty reputation. Political arguments in Pistoia were traditionally decided by secret elimination, and this was effected with the aid of the daggers, called pistolese, made in the city's famous metalworking industry. To increase the efficiency of their murderous methods, they used science to produce handheld firearms, and these weapons that they bestowed to the world, took the name of the old daggers, thus was the Pistol introduced into the armoury of the killer. Nowadays Pistoia has put aside its disreputable past and the  metal industry's chief products are the train cars and buses made by the Breda works. Its main industry though is horticulture and its miniature landscape of ornamental trees and shrubbery lined up in orderly rows is worth seeing.