Baron in Italy, Fri, 20 Dec 2019 | written by Simon
Jemma and Simon at a City, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, Italy

We had a solid sleep this morning – the far corner of the bus station car park has been wonderfully quiet. We got our supplies packed, including the pad and headphones (so prepared!) for yet another work call. Despite the persistent drizzle, we set off.

The walk to the famous Piazza dei Miracoli was really short – apparently they built the cathedral (completed 1092) outside of the contemporary city walls in a display of power – nobody will attack us anyway! How ironic to see after visiting Palazzo Vecchio with its series of frescos and Michaelangelo’s sculpture commemorating the Battle of Cascina of 1364, when the Florentines obliterated Pisa. To be fair, the bet held for nearly three centuries, so not bad.

But the decline of Pisa is obvious throughout the city. Really, the cathedral is the only great site and if not for the famous leaning tower, who knows if even that would be remembered. The buildings around town seem run down and while the online guides try to lure you with various museums and galleries, a quick look through their websites reveals that they don’t really hold much. Not even a a Raphael. I mean, in Florence they use Raphaels as packing paper, so this is low. The Pisans seem to know this well, as pretty much all the tourist crap stands are concentrated around the cathedral, in town there is nothing.

Still, the cathedral is fantastic and well worth the visit. An imposing 5-nave / 3-nave-transept Romanesque building with a forest of columns heavily inspired by the Muslim mosques of Sicily (Pisa looted a few at the time), is very refreshing after all the Renaissance and Baroque. And oddly enough (and somewhat anachronistically), it seems great at taking the best from both – the feeling of plenty is achieved through geometry and architectural forms, not through excessive decoration and gold-dripping. The famous pulpit sculpted by Giovanni Pisano is really remarkable – no wonder it inspired Michaelangelo!

But naturally, it is the simple pleasure of taking a picture of self ‘holding up’ the leaning tower that gathers the crowds. I mean, the tower is nice, but this joke was old in the 19th century. We didn’t climb up, as the ticket was €18 – and to think that yesterday we grumbled over the fact that the combined ticket for Santa Maria del Fiore, it’s dome, tower, excavation sure, and museum, was €16…

We took a stroll through town towards Palazzo Della Carovana (currentlya run down school) and the river. As the rain intensified, we reached Santa Maria della Spina – a tiny gothic church with beautiful outside ornamentation. Sadly, it was closed, but the outside was a great for the eyes.

At this point the rain was getting more and more intense and the time of my work call was approaching, so with nothing in particular left to see, we went back to the Baron. Turns out we were carrying lunch and devices for nothing. After the call and now in a proper downpour, we set off to buy some Christmas presents.

Turns out Pisa only takes about three hours.