Firenze	Prato	Pistoia	Lucca	Versilia
Pisa	Siena	Arezzo	Golf	Wellness

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Among its many boasts Pistoia can also claim to being the birthplace of a pope, Clement IX, whose real name was Giulio Rospigliosi, and whose greatest sin was to reach the Eternal Father too soon, in 1669, after just one and a half years as pope. Despite this, Pope Clement had many merits for his home town, which, thanks to his patronage and rich and noble family, witnessed a flourishing Baroque season in the mid-17th Century and, amongst other things, the arrival in the city of the capital’s most famous and fashionable artists.
A privileged place for this true Baroque explosion was Spirito Santo Square, in the centre, where there is the building, which was the residence of the Pope’s Rospigliosi family, at the entrance to Via del Duca, where Giulio lived from his early childhood until he left for Rome. Right here in this square, where there is a splendid view of the magnificent dome of the Basilica dell’Umiltà, the generosity of the Rospigliosi family’s contribution was confirmed by the building of the church with its annexed college for the Jesuit Fathers that was dedicated to their founder Saint Ignazio of Loyola.
Although it is not particularly striking on the outside, because it was left without a façade, the church, which is today dedicated to the Holy Spirit, is well worth a visit: it is a true gem of Roman Baroque architecture, elegantly set in the medieval fabric of the ancient city. It was built with the collaboration of figures of the standing of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who created the great colonnade in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome, and Pietro Berrettini from Cortona, aided by a team of artists from Tuscany, who certainly knew how to interpret the needs of Roman Baroque architecture.