Wet and Fabulous day in Pisa!

 

Ciao!

One of the things I was hoping to have time to do was spend a bit of time in our resident city, Pisa.  We absolutely love the apartment we have rented, and are only sorry that it will no longer be available for short-term renters like us.  It is fantastic.  Huge windows and doors with screens on all sides of the building; lovely terrace, good lighting and a very, very comfortable bed.  Who could ask for more?  We had planned out day trips to take, and by combining Pontremoli with Lucca, we did free up a day to spend here in town. So glad!

Entering the Field of Miracles

Tower and Duomo; Baptistery tower behind Duomo

Yep, there it is!

Unusual capital on Tower!  Monkeys!

Baptistery

Front of Duomo

Inside Baptistery

St. John the Baptist sculpture on baptismal font

Looking down inside Baptistery from upper gallery

Me across the way!

Duomo and Tower

Breakfast; note hot chocolate!

Love the chocolate!

Knight's Square building, part of University

Loved the column somewhere on the street!

Lovely arcades

Inside Duomo

Stunning painting in center of Duomo dome

Side altar in Duomo

Another side alter in Duomo

After yesterday’s expedition to Torino, we did no alarm-clock setting this morning, and slept in until almost 7 am!  The day looked very black in the west, and the forecast was rain, but we decided to walk into town nonetheless.  Just remembering to take our umbrellas!

We walked a block until we hit the Pisa soccer pitch, then detoured around it.  That put us at the wall for the field of miracles (the space so called including the Duomo, Baptistery and Leaning Tower).  Because it was just around 8 am, there were very few tourists out yet (yeah!) and Robert was actually able to take some fairly “tourist-free” photographs.  We bought tickets to tour the Baptistery and the Duomo (which opens at 10 am), as we climbed the tower some years ago, and as someone who is not her best at heights, once was definitely enough!  As we entered the area, it started to sprinkle; not hard, but definitely enough to use the umbrellas we had (for once) thought to bring!  (Usually they travel all trip in our safe and dry suitcases.)

The Baptistery was lovely, and we joined three other tourists there.  We also climbed to the observation floor which gave a lovely view of the place, but, as Robert noted, “no elevators!”  The rain had moved on by the time we exited.

By then, we were feeling a bit peckish and in need of breakfast, so we walked over to the Café I Miracoli on the corner where we had a stunning view of the tower and other buildings and sat outside to enjoy the view. We each ordered croissants, R’s with Café Americano and me with an amazing hot chocolate with whipped cream – yes!  The way it should be done!  Enjoyed a nice sit-down and breakfast, and then were on our way.

From the Tower (which, by the way is called “Torre Pendente” in Italian!) we headed toward the Arno river, stopping several places along the way.  First, we walked through the Piazza dei Cavalieri, the so-called Knight’s Plaza, which is the second main square of the city. This square was the political center in medieval Pisa. After the middle of 16th century the square became the headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen, and it is now part of the world-renowned University of Pisa, initially established in the 12^thcentury.  The present square is located in the same place as the forum of Portus Pisanus, the harbor of Pisa in the Roman age.  From there, we walked around the Borgo Stretto, a pedestrianized area also from the middle ages, where there were markets and beautiful arcaded shops and restaurants.  Lots of lovely places for gelato … too bad we had so much breakfast!

One thing, though, is that these streets are very hard to walk on; very uneven surfaces.  Robert has declared that he will stop complaining about Tucson streets forever, but I tend to doubt that’s going to happen.  At this point, once we had reached the Arno, we decided to head back to the Field of Miracles and view the Duomo. Lots of steps today, for sure!  

Reaching the Duomo once again, the entire place was filled to the brim with tourists and groups everywhere!  (Can’t imagine this happening every day of the year, but it probably does!  We have read in several tour books that Pisa only “needs” a few hours to see the big three: Tower, Duomo and Baptistery, and then - apparently - people move on!  Really a shame, as Pisa is a lovely city!)  What drives both of us even crazier are all the people who have their arms up in the air with the Tower in the background, so that they can have their picture taken so it looks like they are holding it up! These people are NUTS!  Oh well … guess that’s just personal taste.

Toured the Duomo among hundreds of tourists, and then headed back to the apartment for a sit down.  After all those steps, it was definitely time for a late lunch and hopefully a nap, especially as those really dark clouds were getting closer! We finally had our “eat in” bresaola lunch, as the rain started to come down – hard!  It rained for several hours – and it was wonderful!  It looks like I won’t have to water the petunias on the terrace again, as a lot of rain came straight down today.  So, rather than heading out again, we decided in view of our long day yesterday, that we would nap and stay “home”!  Figuring that, as we had a late and fairly large lunch, that will take us through until tomorrow, which will be our final full day in residence here.

On Friday morning, we are heading to Livorno to catch the ferry boat to Bastia, Corsica.  When I had made our original ferry reservations several months ago, the ferry was set to leave at 8 am.  Then, about a month later, we got a very simple email in French telling us that our boat would not be leaving until 10 am.  Great!  Yesterday’s email contained an even shorter message saying we were leaving at 8 with check-in at 7, so Friday morning is going to be yet another REALLY early day!  Oh well!  [This is just another example of how it is becoming impossible to travel with internet access.]

Lots of love,

m

xxx