Seventh Day - Pisa

September 26th, 2008

The Leaning Tower is so famous that we made sure that a day trip to Pisa on our list of "Must See" sights in Italy. Fortunately, Pisa is easy to visit. We took an intercity train from Florence to Pisa, it was little over an hour long, I think there were just 3 stops along the way. From the Pisa Centrale station, it is an easy walk to the tower, just head north. You can get a taxi, but why miss seeing the city along the way? We discovered that there is a second train station in Pisa that is even closer to the Leaning Tower - it is the San Rossore station. This station only has regional trains stop there (ie: no Eurostars or Intercity trains), but since the regional trains go to both Lucca and Florence, I am surprised that more guidebooks don't mention this option. From San Rossore station to the Leaning Tower seemed like only a half mile walk. The guide books recommend spending a morning in Pisa, seeing the Leaning Tower and the Field of Miracles, then spending the rest of the day in Lucca. But we opted to spend our entire day exploring Pisa. Melanie did some research on the internet and found some walking tours through the city. We found this site to be especially helpful: Click here, here , and here.

On this morning, we got up early and took any early train ride to Pisa. We did not have reservations for climbing the Leaning Tower, so we wanted to arrive early and get our tickets before all the tour groups showed up. Once in Pisa, we walked to the Field of Miracles, which is the name given to the large field that holds the Leaning Tower, the Duomo (cathedral), and the Baptistry. Fortunately, there wasn't any line at all! We got 10 AM tickets to climb the tower. It is neat that the tower is now open after some years of stabilization work. Each group of tourists is admitted for a 40 minute visit. So we hurried up the stairs. The stairs themselves are interesting - they are built in an ascending spiral around the inner wall. On one side of the tower, the stone steps are well worn along the inner side of the stairwell, while on the opposite side of the tower, the stairs are worn on the outer side of the stairwell.

At the top of the tower we were able to look out over the Field of Miracles. This was one highlight of our excellent vacation.

Next we toured the Duomo. There is a wealth of artwork and history on display. I learned a few things by over hearing the speeches of some of the English tour guides.

After the Duomo, we walked over to the Baptistry. The interior of the Baptistry is not nearly as ornate, I think it has been keep free of decoration in order to preserve the acoustics - the sound properties of this building are demonstrated by a security guard who shows every hour and stands in the center. He sings a few notes from Ave Maria, and as the sound echoes around the building, it sounds as if more than one person is singing. It is a marvelous effect.

The baptistry has a second level. You can climb up a flight of stairs and look down upon the baptismal fount. There is are also windows around the perimeter for peering out, but a thick mesh impedes the view. On the one window that looks back upon the Duomo and Leaning Tower, a hole is cut in the mesh that is just big enough for a camera lens.

We ate lunch at the Field of Miracles, looking at the remnants of the old city wall. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be anyway to climb up on the walls themselves. There is a gate in the wall nearby - the Porta del Leone (Gate of the Lion.) Despite our leisurely pace, we completed our tour of the Field of Miracles by early afternoon - the tourist highlights of Pisa really can be seen in half a day without hurrying. We decided to go see the Museum of Ancient Ships. As we left the tourist area, three gypsy women tried to approach my mom who was carrying her expensive camera equipment - one woman was carrying a baby, another had a piece of cardboard - it was exactly the scenario that we had read about online warning about thieves in Italy. My sister spotted their beeline approach and shouted at them to leave us alone, and they immediately changed direction and went looking for a less wary target. This was the only time in our Italy vacation that we had an encounter with the notorious thieves. We felt perfectly safe the whole trip.

The Museum of Ancient Ships was not officially opened yet. We asked for a tour anyway, since Melanie had read that you could still see some of the excavated hulls. They found these ships buried in the mud when they tried to expand the San Rossore train station. Maybe when the museum is finished it will be more interesting, but our visit was a disappointment.

My mom and sister boarded the train back to Florence at the San Rossore station. Melanie and I commenced our walking tour through the city. We stopped at the Knight's Square and Garibaldi Piazza, and then over the Ponte di Mezzo bridge and strolled along the south bank of the Arno River. The church of the Santa Maria della Spina is on the south bank, it is so small that it looks like a scaled model of a real church. I would have liked to climb the Tower of Guelph - I wonder if you can look across and see the Leaning Tower from up there, but the Guelph was closed that day. We walked to the San Paolo church, and then through the old city walls at the Porta a Mare (Gate of the Sea?). Just outside the old walls was a ruined building that appeared to be a ship loading dock, but it was fenced off so we could not explore it. We walked backed to the Pisa Centrale train station and took a train back to Florence.

After dinner, Rose and I walked out to the Piazza della Signoria to see if the statue of David was illuminated at night, because my Mom thought it would fun to try some night photographs, but the statue wasn't directly lit up.