The Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese, active since 1990, consists of 6 open-air itineraries, museums, learning centres and historical artifacts that enable visitors to know Pistoia Mountains through the signs that the human/environment relationship has left over the centuries. An essential environment, where water and forests have supplied the raw materials and energy used by inhabitants for simple and ingenious production facilities: ironworks, iceboxes and mills. The Ecomuseum organises educational workshops held by qualified personnel and involving about 4000 students per year, on the themes covered in its itineraries. All workshops include theoretical classes as well as hands-on activities, demonstrations of ancient trades or hiking and walks. Educational offers are customisable and adaptable to the specific needs of classes.
- Natural sciences at the Archeaological, Natural Museum of Pistoia Apennine: it is a workshop allowing participants to become aware of natural environments and typical fauna, flora and geology of Tuscan apennines.
- Leonardo’s genius: this educational lab set up with the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s scale models “Leonardo’s machines: in the footsteps of the genius on Pistoia Mountains”, proposes the understanding of his inventions to discover his multidisciplinary knowledge and the correlations present on the territory.
- Back in the mountain’s time: this training proposes a new experimental approach to the mountain life of the past. At the Museum of Pistoia Apennine People you can discover the trades and tools used in the past and you may identify with the life at that time.
- The richness of woodland: educational activity on woodland fruits, one of the excellent products of upland areas.
- A natural refrigerator: an overview of the history of natural ice production since the end of the 18th century till the first decades of the 20th century.
- Iron museum, Educational garden and old Ironworks: the iron trail narrates the history of steel during the preindustrial age, already existing on Pistoia Mountains in the 16th
- The Chestnut and Coal Routes: a trail in which you find a metato (or drying-room) in a small building or space, built of stone or brick, used for chestnut drying, and Giamba water mill.
The Memory-collection of Pistoia mountains: this project was launched in 2018 with the goal of video recording stories, testimonies and tales concerning Pistoia mountains, narrated by the voice of those who have experienced and collected them, in order to prevent the dispersal of the enormous heritage of culture and oral tradition that risks being lost for ever. The Memory-collection is open and inclusive. Everyone can contribute to it (by collecting a story and sending a video), anyone can consult it freely and create personal pathways. The aim of the Memory-collection is not just to collect stories but rather promote dialogue between generations. The stories are clustered in different topics (Resistance, war, music, fairy tales, games, information, parties, jokes, food, poetry, songs, religion, family stories, love stories, funny stories, migration, work, agriculture, woods and scrubland, livestock farming, water, anecdotes, and nursery rhymes).
LetterAppenninica is a mountain literature festival which takes place in summer on Pistoia mountains. It was established in 2015, on the initiative of a writer, Federico Pagliai and it has become an important summer appointment in the areas of San Marcello, Cutigliano, Abetone and their surroundings. LetterAppenninica is a project which is aimed at drawing attention, through the channels of culture and books, to the Apennine context, which has long been overlooked in the Italian debate. Apennines constitute the backbone of Italy’s system, the ridge crossing the entire Italian peninsula, which is essential for the environment (as shown by many catastrophic events in recent years) but also from a a cultural point of view, if for no other reason that everyone has family, historical or emotional connections with the mountains.
