Pescia is an affluent market town, 18km east of Lucca in northern Tuscany, and attracting few tourists. English language guide books generally give it little notice, some noting its commercial flower market, second in Europe only to Amsterdam, and some recommending its long established Cecco restaurant. The Pinocchio Park at Collodi, nearby in the Pescia comune, attracts much more attention (the author of Pinocchio was born in the Villa Garzoni, whose Renaissance gardens are worth a visit). But the "Citta dei Fiori" itself has much more to offer.

Pescia is a walled city dating from the 11th century, some parts of the walls on both sides of the River Pescia still remaining visible, most conspicuously the Torre della Scuola in Piazza XX Settembre (since the 1930s, the bus station). Immediately north of the tower is the Piazza del Mercato, formerly the convent of Santa Maria Nuova, but now hosting the Saturday morning fruit and veg market, as well as an excellent bar, with tables outside, Sotti i Portici.

St Francis (of Assissi) visited the city in 1211 and the Chiesa San Francesco, east of the River Pescia, has a 1225 portrait said to be a true likeness, by Bonaventura Berlinghiero, and surrounded by scenes from his life. Opposite is the 19th century Teatro Pacini. The main square (Piazza Mazzini) and the back streets of Pescia have many examples of medieval palazzos. One of the most interesting, the Palazzo del Podesta, hidden near the Chiesa dei SS Stefano e Niccolao, to the north west of Piazza Mazzini, houses a collection of plaster originals for bronzes by the Pescia sculptor Libero Andreotti (open Apr-Nov; Wed & Sun pm, Fri & Sat am & pm).

Early in the 20th century, the Lucca-Monsummano tramway came through Pescia, with a small section of the track still visible in Borgo della Vittoria, at the southern entry to Piazza Mazzini. Now the old tram route has become a ribbon development, making the drive from Lucca to Pescia slow and unattractive. The town was also sufficiently important for the Florence-Viareggio railway to make a substantial detour through Pescia some 50 years earlier, although the station is a good kilometre south of the town centre. But its importance must have declined, as the Firenze-Mare autostrada makes no such detour.

Pescia's prosperity, now strongly based on horticulture, was formerly based on silk, and later paper. Now some of the derelict mills are being restored. A beautiful example can be seen just north of Pescia at the Hotel San Lorenzo - also offering excellent food and a swimming pool.

Further north is the Svizzera Pesciatina (Pescia's "little Switzerland" although the resemblance is not always obvious) an area of chestnut forest and the "Dieci Castella" (fortified medieval villages) the more remote of which have been losing population, and their bars and shops, for decades. A guide by local author Publio Bagini shows the population declining to about half between the 19th century and the 1981 census.

Pescia will never be an international tourist magnet. That is perhaps its attraction.

by Mike Hunter
An article first published in The Grapevine ( www.luccagrapevine.com ), May 2002