Piteglio

Piteglio is located between the Torbecchia and Liesina valleys and dominates the Lima Valley, where the route of the important and ancient trans-Apennine road that connected Pistoia to Garfagnana ran. In the 11th-12th century Piteglio was a fortified castle under the control of Pistoia, whose architectural evidence can be read today in the ancient houses that overlook the narrow streets that climb up to the center of the village. Here stands the church of Santa Maria Assunta, whose square-shaped bell tower reveals its ancient function as a watchtower. In the small village there are two churches: the parish church of Santissima Annunziata, which tradition says was founded by Matilde di Canossa, documented as early as 1040, and the church of Santa Maria Assunta, dating back to the 13th century and modified in subsequent centuries. Here an ancient cult was celebrated linked to the relic of the sacred milk of the Madonna, which tradition says was brought from the Holy Land by a crusader, a precious liquid that is still preserved in the chapel of the Madonna del Latte inside a large seventeenth-century wooden altar. [texts from the Tourism Service of the province of Pistoia]