A Lovely Pistoia Evening

The bus schedule (partial) to town

July 14: We woke to a beautiful morning, and now that Terrie was with us, we fell into a relaxed and restorative schedule that was dictated in part by the heat and in part by our desire to ... well, to relax.

We started with coffee and tea on the west patio, because it was shaded in the morning. Breakfast followed, still on the west patio. We caught up on emails, news (sort of), and reading material until the sun crept up over the roof and began beating down on us.

Those mornings were so laid back that I never even took a picture of that patio.

On this day, we made the decision to hang around the house until late afternoon and then go in to town to explore a bit. Terrie wanted to treat us to dinner, as it was Cindy's and my 10th wedding anniversary. Until we left the house, the hardest work we did was finding an appealing restaurant and making a reservation for early dinner (7pm, because that was the earliest any restaurant served).

So at about 5:00 or so we set out on the trek to the bus stop. It was hot, and we took advantage of every scrap of shade along the way, stopping to relieve ourselves of the sun's heat for a few moments. Finally made it to the bus stop and waited in full sun for the bus to arrive. Happily, it was air conditioned so there was some relief there. We got off at our favorite Piazza San Francesco and after a false start in the wrong direction managed to determine the Apple map app's guidance to get to our restaurant. We were early, so took our time, finding as always interesting buildings.

Here is the Church of Sant' Andrea, dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle and dating back to the 8th century.

The familiar bichrome facade is 12th century and, I've learned, typical of the Pistoiese Romanesque style. I loved the intricacy of the upper part of the bichrome facade--and the lintel above the door, which depicts the "Journey of the Magi." Very cool.

Across the street from this church is a tall skinny building with what looks like a forest on the top level.

We passed the Pistoia Musei, but it was too late to get in. Would have liked to do that, but oh well...

And still with time to wander, we found ourselves at the Duomo, which we certainly wanted Terrie to see.

The late afternoon sun on the Duomo showed the facade, especially the upper levels, to great advantage:

An exquisite and elaborate entry arch:

While Cindy and Terrie sat on the steps in front of the baptistery, I ventured into the cathedral to find another beautiful interior with, again, exposed and painted wooden beams.

A simply lovely pulpit:

I can't recall exactly where in the cathedral this is, but it was the only elevated area like this that I ever saw in any of the many churches we visited.

It looks so inviting.

Looking out an open door on the north side I saw an enticing alleyway:

Sadly, I didn't personally see the most famous altar in the Duomo, the silver Altar of Saint James, so this Wikipedia image will have to suffice for both me and thee:

From Wikipedia:

"...the altar of Saint James, in embossed silver sheet, which was moved here in 1953 ... was begun in 1287, when Andrea di Jacopo d'Ognabene was commissioned to make representations of the Madonna and Child for the rear of the altar, and, for the front section, of Stories of the New Testament, Christ in Majesty between Mary and St. James and Three Stories of St. James, which he finished in 1316. In addition, Pace di Valentino, a Sienese goldsmith, created some of the figures surrounding St. James. Giglio Pisano executed the large silver statue depicting St. James Enthroned (1349-1353), commissioned as thanksgiving after the end of the Black Death in 1348." A weighty subject (this weighs about a ton), and worthy of note.

And one last altar:

It was time for dinner, so we walked back to our highly rated restaurant. I can't remember the name (this is what happens when I am so far behind in logging these memories; they're already lost), but I do remember that it was excellent.

Navigating the menu turned out to be a real challenge. Dishes and courses were to be selected from three different columns and wines were suggested for those selections. And the menu was only in Italian. Fortunately, we had a very helpful server; otherwise, who knows what we might have ended up with...

It was all great, and we enjoyed the warm evening--the upside of those hot days. For two refugees from the S.F. Bay Area's cool days and colder nights, those warm evenings were a heavenly break from what we're used to.

Dinner extended for as long as we could make it, we finally went back to exploring. Now that it was getting dark, it was a whole new place to see.

The baptistery is stunning...

...as is the bell tower

Everywhere we wandered, Pistoia was magical that evening. Heck, even that port-a-potty looked special in the dusk.

This was better:

We walked many streets that evening--at some point, we were less interested in the sights and much more interested in finding a taxi back to the house--which we finally did, arriving home at the fashionably late (for us women of a certain age) hour, around 10:30. Tired but satisfied with our outing, we headed to bed.

Another day in Pistoia put to bed, as it were.