So, I've landed in Tuscany, in Florence, and I'm talking about leaning. I'm sure almost all of my readers will have already guessed what happened next. It was, of course, a day trip to Pisa.
It's a popular day outing from Florence, taking as little as 50 minutes each way by frequent and comfortable trains, and costing just €9.30 each way. Now for the trick. The Florence-Pisa-Livorno route functions as a kind of self-contained unit within the larger Trenitalia national network. It has its own ticketing procedure. You can book tickets ahead of time online. You can buy them from ticket machines at the station. Or, you can simply tap a card as you get on and as you get off. Here's the machine, photo taken on my return trip:
The silver tap area for cards in the centre is easy. Paper tickets have to be inserted into the black slot under the tap area, and then withdrawn, in order to be validated. Is the black thing at the bottom where you scan a QR code on your phone if you paid in advance online? I'm not sure. The point is, whichever way you are travelling, you need to validate at the machine on the platform before you get on the train. If you don't, you are laying yourself open to the possibility of a hefty fine when a ticket inspector comes by and checks. If you are tapping your card, you of course have to tap at another machine after you get off.
The challenge was to find a machine at Florence station, in the boarding area for these local region trains, that was working. I had a paper ticket, stuck it into the machine once -- and then again -- and then again, and nothing happened.I finally walked up to an agent on the platform, and he validated it by hand. By the time he had done that, six more people were waiting with the same problem. Ah, technology!
Although the morning train was well filled, it was a smooth and comfortable trip. We stopped at two stations on the way to Pisa Centrale. Some of the slower trains stop a good deal more often.
And then we arrived in Pisa, and it was time to get out and walk. The first site, in a piazza just north of the station, is this statue of King Victor Emmanuel II. Somehow it seems a trifle disrespectful to plonk down a Ferris wheel right there. The second picture takes a slightly more solemn viewpoint. Slightly.
After leaving the piazza, it was a simple matter to walk more or less due north along streets lined with old apartment buildings, some with stores or restaurants on the ground floor.
This first half of the walk continued until I ran into the banks of the Arno -- the same river as in Florence, here approaching its mouth. In fact, Pisa was founded as a seaport on the shore of the ocean, and has gradually lost ground to all the silt poured out every year by the Arno's boisterous waters. It's now nine kilometres inland.
Right away, it's impossible to miss the extra height of boards backed by sandbags on the riverside wall. The Arno had one of its dangerous floods just last month after a period of steady and intense rain when the ground in the mountains to the east was already saturated.
I had to detour a few hundred metres to the west here to reach a bridge. On the way, I came to this delicately beautiful structure, all in the pale grey local marble: the church of Santa Maria della Spina (Saint Mary of the Thorn). The name derives from a relic, long kept here, which was believed to be a thorn from the Crown of Thorns forced onto Jesus' head during his suffering before the crucifixion. The relic is now housed elsewhere.
Crossing the nearby bridge gave me a first chance to see the waters of the Arno. I was impressed to think that this broad river could rise up in a matter of hours to the tops of the walls along the riverbank.
Continuing straight on beyond the bridge, I passed on the right the entrance to the Botanical Garden, pausing only long enough to lean in a snap a couple of quick pictures.
Beyond the gardens, it took me about 10 more minutes to reach the open space around the Cathedral, a space often called the Piazza dei Miracoli, although its formal name is Piazza del Duomo. Here's an internet photo which gives a panoramic view of the whole complex.
Photo/Map: Arne Müseler / arne-mueseler.com / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.de
The four buildings are shown below in this order: the Baptistery, the Monumental Cemetery, the Cathedral or Duomo, and of course the world-famous bell tower.
The admission charges to the various buildings are scaled more or less by popularity, with the admission to the Tower being greater than all the others combined. Surprise, surprise. Fair warning: you need to book reservations well in advance if you've always wanted to climb the tower. Numbers are kept small because of the narrow and steep curving staircases. The revenue from the admission charges is used to maintain all the buildings in the complex, a very expensive task.
Because of the loose, spongy soils (silt from the Arno, remember?), all the buildings in the complex have settled or tilted at least a bit. The tower has just been more diligent at settling and tilting than its companions. In the 1990s, it had reached an extreme tilt of 5.5 degrees, leaving its future in doubt, particularly following the sudden collapse of a tower in another town. A lengthy and extensive remediation project removed all the bells, anchored the tower firmly during the work with steel stay cables, and lowered the high side with the removal of soil, reducing the tilt to 3.97 degrees. Incidentally, for the first time since detailed observations have been taken, the tower has stopped moving -- a definite good sign. But that tilt still makes a lot of people nervous.
Just kidding. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.
It was enjoyable not least because I devoted my time here to prospecting for the fascinating details, sculptural and otherwise, incorporated into these buildings. This sculpture appears above the entrance of the Monumental Cemetery.
Mosaic artwork above two of the doors of the Cathedral.
And two quite different sculptured columns:
Photos which I've seen of the interiors show that the same intricacy of design and decoration pervades every inch of all the structures. It makes some of the great cathedrals of northern Europe and the United Kingdom look sombre and plain by comparison.
In a way, it's a pity that I passed on the admission charges to at least the Baptistery and the Duomo, where I could have enjoyed more artistic riches. My younger self would have loved to climb the Tower, but that's no longer as big a Big Deal as it would have been way back when.
But Pisa had one more grand surprise for me. As I was leaving the Piazza dei Miracoli, I was more than a little hungry -- ravenous, in fact. I got an outdoor table in one of the restaurants right on the short pedestrian street which leads to the entrance gate. I know -- in a location like that, it has to be a tourist trap, right? Well, you be the judge. I was browsing the wines by the glass, at prices from €12 to €15, and then I spotted it: the house white or red wines at €10 for a half litre! It wasn't schlock, either. In Europe, a "house" wine is often a personal pick of the owner or manager, usually local or regional, and very much not from the bottom shelf. I don't know if any of that was the case here, but the house white wine accorded perfectly with my tastebuds!
Toss in a bottle of water, and a dinner-plate-size pizza quattro formaggi which stood comparison with the best I've ever had, anywhere. This place actually got the thin crust completely crisp, all the way from the rim to the centre. That's an art form in itself for you! And then there was the bill for all that deliciousness: a mere €29, including tax and service. Well worth every penny.
And just to underline the point that there's more than one treasure in Pisa, I caught a glimpse of this on the way back to the station to return to Florence.
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