Are you thinking about heading to Tuscany with Boundless Life?
We did the Tuscany Cohort from April to July in 2024 and had an incredible time! I have done a separate blog on general information about Boundless Life, but this one is all about info that I think you need to know if you have signed up, or are thinking of joining, the Tuscany program.
The Tuscany cohort is based in the town of Pistoia, which I had never heard of until I was researching Boundless Life. It is about a 40 minute train ride from Florence in the beautiful Tuscan hills.
The centre of the town is a walled, pedestrian-only medieval town, and this is where the Boundless Life hub, education centre and homes are located.
It is beyond beautiful with surprises around every corner and we loved living there for 3 months! You can get a €400 discount on your first month’s fees if you let them know that “Lisa Wilkinson” sent you!
Public Transport
Pistoia is a very walkable town - in fact most of the town is pedestrian only, so you don’t really have a choice!
The Boundless Life hub has e-bikes that you rent if you want to go further away, and some of our friends had amazing days out in the Tuscan hills on those bikes.
There are no ubers in Pistoia and there are a couple of taxis, however they are very unreliable and expensive. Luckily the public transport is pretty great and is an excellent way of exploring the area around Pistoia as well as getting further away across the country (as long as there are no strikes, which unfortunately seems to happen often!).
Pistoia train station is a short walk from the centre of town. From here you can easily get a train to Florence (Santa Maria Novella station - make sure you get the fast 33 minute train and not the 52 minute all stops!).
If you are heading out at night in Florence, there are returning trains at 8.38pm, 8.59pm, 9.09pm, 10.09pm and 12.25am. We found these to be easy and safe with kids, just make sure you don’t miss them!
The train line also takes you directly to Viareggio, Lucca and Montecatini, which are excellent day trips.
At Florence SMN you can change trains and get pretty much anywhere in Italy! For the longer trains, it is much much cheaper to pre-book your tickets online, with as much notice as possible.
For the local trains (Florence, Lucca etc) you can pre-book online if you don't want the hassle of using the ticket machines at the station, and if you are running late or early you can easily change the ticket time online. Pre-booking the local trains is the same price as buying from the station. You always need to validate your ticket before you board (paper tickets get validated in the machine and online tickets have a link to click on) and we saw people get fined for not doing that correctly.
From Pistoia station you can catch buses around the local area, as well as to Florence airport.
Florence airport is a bit of a nightmare to get to - on the train you need to go all the way into Florence and then get the tram to the airport.
We never caught the bus that goes to the airport - we tried and it never showed up, but we had friends who had caught it successfully. The bus is number R04 and the details are here.
You can pre-purchase bus tickets from a machine or the ticket office on the opposite side of the road to the station, and then you validate them when you get on the bus.
Car hire
Hiring a car was a great way to explore Tuscany! We had friends who hired a car for the entire 3 months and it worked out pretty good value, but we only did it for long weekends.
There are car hire places in Pistoia, that we didn’t discover until the end of our stay! If you book in advance it works out pretty cheap.
Maggiore is located near the Essalunga near the education centre and if you are happy to drive a manual, you can get pretty cheap deals. They aren’t open on weekends though.
There is also a Hertz car rental office in Pistoia and they often have great deals, even better if you can get a promo code!
You can get very cheap cars from near the airport, although it’s a bit of a nightmare to pick them up and drop them off. We found good deals through KAYAK and at Rent Smart 24. The offices which aren’t located right at the airport will come and pick you up from the airport.
If you do hire a car, please note that you will get fined if you drive into the centre of Pistoia! They have cameras and the fines aren’t cheap, so please park outside of the pedestrian zone.
We always parked around here which was free and we never had any issues, otherwise there are paid parking options around town as well.
Playgrounds
There are 3 main playgrounds in Pistoia:
Piazza della Resistenza - this playground is located next to the old fortress (Fortezza di Santa Barbara). It is a big green park, with lots of space for running around and some good playground equipment. There is a restaurant located in the park (Fortezza 59), which we absolutely loved, especially for lunches.
They have outdoor seating so you can see the playground. I definitely recommend visiting the fortress as well, it is incredible! It is free entry, although only open until 1.30pm. I liked visiting on my own while the kids were at school, as well as with them on weekends. It’s huge, so lots of areas to explore, and it is so beautiful and peaceful.
Parco di Monteoliveto - this is where we had our Community in the Park gatherings every Wednesday, and we loved it! It’s a beautiful park with lots of space and great playground equipment, but we mostly loved it for the cocktail bar in the park (La Serra di Monteoliveto) which has the most incredible drinks that you can enjoy outside, chatting with the other parents, while the kids run around together. They have a small snack bar as well, for sandwiches, cakes etc.
Parco della Rana - this is a bit further out of town than the other two, but has play equipment and a snack bar (which serves alcoholic drinks, of course!). We only visited once as one of my kids hurt himself on the equipment and didn’t want to go back again, but other families loved it!
Nights out
The young people are out in Pistoia until late every Friday and Saturday night, but they mostly seem to just hang about in the squares, drinking and checking each other out. There aren’t really any proper pubs or clubs in Pistoia, but there are a few local places to go out if you have organised a babysitter:
Bonnie and Clyde - this is a dive bar! It is dark, unpolished, eclectic, and deceptively large. They serve great drinks and have excellent music. On Thursday nights they do rock and roll karaoke if you are in the mood for a sing!
Beer House Project - a beer hall with a good vibe. It has a old taverny feel about it, with big wooden tables, and a great selection of various local beers on rotation. It has a kitchen serving burgers, chips etc.
Berk the Pub - this is a small awesomely decorated, rock and roll, old timey style pub on the way to Piazza San Francesco. It’s a quirky and very friendly place and serves food and drinks.
The Dumb - a hole in the wall nightclub in a back street near the Cathedral. The music was great, with a tiny stage set up for live music. It’s very popular with the young people!
Villa Vittoria Firenze - please, please, please promise me that you’ll organise a mum’s night out to this incredible night club in Florence! It was one of my best nights out ever and the club will blow your mind! It is located in the grounds of an old villa called Firenze Fiera, right next to the main train station, so it is really easy to get to. Don’t forget to take some little bottles of prosecco for the train ride…
They are open from Wednesday to Saturday, and you should book a table - I think we paid €20 for our entry, a cocktail and an awesome buffet dinner. They also had waitresses bringing around fresh pizza to the tables. The quality and selection of food was amazing, especially for the price!
They had live music performers and DJs, as well as a light show on the facade of the old building. The dance floor goes off, so don’t forget your dancing shoes! We went on a 2000s retro night, but being our age it was perfect as it was all songs that we knew!
We caught the last train home at 12.25pm, but if I was going again I’d prebook a car to pick us up later, as the club was just getting started at midnight! The first train is at 5.10am on a Saturday, if you can make it that late!
Asmana Wellness World - more of a day out than a night out (although they are open until midnight!), this is a spa that was loved by our cohort! You will need to drive there, but it’s great for a date or a day with friends! It costs €29 to get in during the week, and this includes entry to the pools for 3 hours and some treatments, although these change every day. They have a bar for cocktails (of course!) and you can get food there.
Shopping
There is a shop near Le Grand Café du Globe called Lovely Market. From the outside it looks tiny, but it goes so far back and is totally huge - and you can buy everything there! It’s like a discount shop, so nothing is amazing quality, but for all those odds and ends that you need, this is the place to go!
The main supermarkets in town are either Essalunga or Conad, depending on where you live. Both of them have loyalty programs that you can sign up for, which gives you discounts and sometimes you can get some amazing specials.
I recommend buying your fruit and veggies from the markets in Piazza della Sala. The quality is so much better, the price is cheaper and the people who work there are lovely! They are there everyday except for Sunday, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays there is a fishmonger there as well.
Speaking of markets, the whole town of Pistoia becomes a massive market every Wednesday and Saturday. It’s amazing, you can buy literally anything and people come from all over Tuscany to shop there. I have made a reel about it which you can check out here.
The nearest shopping mall is at Centro Commerciale I Gigli, which is a train and then a long walk or bus ride, but they have a Primark, Zara etc.
Lastly, if you do buy stuff and want to send it home, we bought a packing box from Lovely Market and sent it through the Post Office. It cost us €57.90 to send a 5kg box to Australia, which we thought was pretty reasonable.
Please let me know if you have any questions about any of this, or anything else to do with Pistoia or Boundless Life. We really enjoyed our time there and are happy to help with anything you want to know!