Sambuca Pistoiese

This comune is in Tuscany but faces the other way: its waters run into the Reno, towards the Adriatic, and at Pavana a Bolognese dialect is spoken. Francesco Guccini, who grew up at Pavana and lived there until his death in 2026, collected its words in a glossary and wrote stories in it.

The castle, of the eleventh century, belonged to the bishop of Pistoia, who had no money to defend it: in 1211, when Bologna made war, the troops of Pistoia went in and never left. In 1311 a leader of the Whites who had taken refuge there sold it to Pistoia for eleven thousand lire. Woods cover more than ninety-five per cent of the territory.