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Pistoia lies at the far end of the uninterrupted strip of urban settlement that stretches all the way from Firenze. Closed off to the north by the Appennine range (the mountains of the Pistoiese where Abetone is situated) and to the west by Monte Albano, the city has maintained a good balance between recent development and its historic roots.
The extensive walls of the old city, which are still basically intact, were built in the first half of the 1300s and subsequently fortified by the Medici. The high point of the city's history was the period of the comune in the 13th century, when the bankers of Pistoia lent money as far afield as France, and the city was in a phase of rapid expansion. If on the one hand the absence of development has inhibited urban vitality, on the other hand it does mean that today we can see many historically-interesting sights in Pistoia.
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