Via G. Verdi (previously Via della Pillotta)
Up until 1901 the road was called via della Pillotta in memory of an ancient game known as 'della Pilota' or 'Pila' (a leather ball tightened with string) which was usually played in the wide free spaces between Via Verdi and Via Puccinelli, before the construction of the houses that now divide the two streets. Along this narrow street there are some memorial tablets in honour of the famous people who lived there.

via Verdi n. 62 - Memorial tablet to ATTILIO FROSINI

ATTILIO FROSINI (Pistoia, 1833 - Pistoia, 1849.). Attilio Frosini, son of Agostino, who worked as a butler for the noble Marchetti family and Annunziata Sassaroli, a household servant, was a young man from Pistoia. In 1849 he was shot and killed by Austrian troops in Pistoia. Many different and contradictory stories have been told about the story of this young man: sometimes his courage is exalted while in others his naivity is emphasized. For the people of Pistoia, he was nevertheless a young martyr, a symbol of hard-won freedom. The Austrian troops, after the extraordinary events in Italy in 1848, were charged with bringing order back to the peninsula. In Tuscany they were trying to restore the sovereignty of Grand duke Leopoldo II of Lorena and in Pistoia the battalion commanded by colonel De Mayer, was being hosted in the Bishop's Palace, situated on Via Puccini. On the 28th of June 1849, the young Attilio Frosini on seeing a sentinel on guard and misjudging him for a Hungarian soldier, shouted 'Viva Kossuth!' (Hurray for Kossuth!). He believed that he would have been able to share with him his enthusiasm for the recent independence of Hungary, which had been brought about by Luigi Kossuth during the rebellion in 1848. Everything then happened extremely quickly. The young man was taken inside the building where he was beaten, arrested and charged with the 'instigation of desertion.' After a brief trial, the boy was condemned to death by strangulation. The sentence was then commuted to death by shooting and he was executed the following day, the 29th of June, inside the Fortress of Saint Barbara. With the brutal execution of Frosini, the Austrians wanted to send out a strong warning to the citizens of Pistoia who didn't want to submit to their laws and who didn't want the re-establishment of the rule of the Grand duke of Lorena. Attilio Frosini's enthusiasm for the ideals of Italian freedom and his young age brought him into a situation that was much larger then he himself. He paid for his inappropriate gesture with his life.

via Verdi n.48 - Memorial tablet to CINO MICHELOZZI

CINO MICHELOZZI(Pistoia, 1841 - Pistoia, 1899). This unusual ceramic memorial tablet, shows the house where Cino Michelozzi was born. Public notary, deputee and appreciated jurisconsult, Michelozzi was the author of many editions of the 'Commentario delle leggi italiane sul notariato' (Comments on the Italian notarial laws) and of the 'Formulario prontuario per la pratica degli atti notarili' (Formulary Pronctuary for the practice of Notarial acts). He was also director of the 'Rolandino', which was a newspaper for notaries based in Rome. He joined the International Society of the Compared Law in France and worked together with the Italian government on several legislative committees.

via Verdi n. 19 - Two memorial tablets to STEFANO DUNYOV
STEFANO DUNYOV(Vinga, 1816 - Pistoia, 1889). These two memorial tablets celebrate Garibladi's colonel Stefano Dunyov. He was Hungarian with Bulgarian origins and lived in this house from 1871 until his death in 1889. Dunyov, like many Hungarian legionaries, took part in the Spedizione dei Mille (expedition of the thousand) in 1860, during which he stood out for his organisational skills. Garibaldi, admiring his abilities, named him colonel commander of the 2nd regiment of the 3rd brigade 'Eberhardt' in the 17th divsione 'Medici' which was later called 'The Dunyov Regiment'. Dunyov was seriously injured during the battle of Maddaloni, to the point where it became necessary to amputate his leg. At the end of the expedition he was admitted into the Italian army as a colonel, but despite his requests he was put into furlough where he was then invited to apply for his pension. His outraged reply was thus "It is more natural that the Garibaldine elements are neutered, at any cost to the army" In 1863, after Garibaldi's failed attempt to take Rome when he was stopped in Aspromonte on 29th of August 1862, Dunyov took residence first in Genova and then in Turin. Dunyov then moved definitively to Pistoia in 1876 where he took Italian citizenship and lived with his wife Antonietta Salamini and their seven children. Dunyov was awarded 'The Military Cross of The Order of Savoy,' 'The Cross of Saint Maurizio and Lazzaro,' and 'The Cross of the Italian Crown.' In 1789 he had the honour of receiving Luigi Kossut at his house in Via della Pillotta. Kossut was the Hungarian politician who had managed to bring independence to his fatherland, even if only for a short period of time. It was in this same house that he died on the 30th of August 1889 after having been widowed some two years previously.