The Puccini Garden in Scornio
Puccini Garden originally spread about 123 hectares around the eighteenth-century “Villone” of Scornio, the Puccini family’s summer residence in the countryside of Pistoia, two kilometres outside the ancient Porta al Borgo. Preparations for the garden started around 1820 and continued for the whole of the first half of the century, at the wish of the Pistoia family’s last son, Niccolò Puccini, known as “the hunchback of Scornio”, who devoted his life to the grand project of the Romantic park, where nature and man combined to create suggestive scenes with little lakes, classical ruins and medieval towers and castles.
46 “monuments” were scattered along the garden paths – buildings, statues, columns and numerous epigraphs – bearing educational, patriotic, moral and celebratory messages. After Niccolò Puccini’s death, in accordance with his will, the property in Scornio was split up and auctioned and the profits from the sale were donated to charity.
Today, in spite of alterations, decay or the disappearance of various monuments, it is still possible to see the garden complex from the main buildings: the ruins of the temple of Pythagoras on the island in the centre of the Lake, the Pantheon of illustrious men, the Gothic Castle, the Gothic Temple, Catilina Tower, as well as many statues and epitaphs scattered along the paths. The villa, which now belongs to the Council, is the site of the “Teodulo Mabellini” Music School.

The Zoological Garden of the city of Pistoia
On the gentle hills that surround the city to the north, just two kilometres from the centre, we are greeted by the unusual and amazing sight of Pistoia’s Zoological Garden, which covers an area of 75,000 square metres, surrounded by dense vegetation of oaks, pines and tropical plants. It is one of the most famous and modern zoos in Italy and is home to over six hundred animals from all over the world. Pistoia’s Zoological Garden, which is constantly being developed and modernised, is increasingly establishing itself internationally as a modern centre for the preservation of biodiversity.
Thanks to international breeding programmes, the zoo works with other institutes around the world to preserve populations of species at risk of extinction and, when possible, promote their reintroduction into nature.
In the zoological garden you can many admire animals, even the rarest and most fascinating ones, from the mighty tiger and majestic jaguar to the agile Ugandan giraffe and the ring-tailed Madagascan lemur, and species like the great reticulated python in the reptile house.
Part of the zoo is dedicated to domestic species, where there are special activities for children, who can relate to the animals at leisure and take part, under the supervision of expert personnel, in biodiversity laboratories and educational programmes to discover the fascinating world of nature