The Ham Nomads

23 Mar 2015. <IT> Pisa, Toscana —

Weather good, so we made an early start. We drove southwards on the tollway, with the snow-capped Alpi Apuane on our left and, from time to time, Mediterranean harbour villages to our right. This was a day of tunnel after tunnel — the Italian coastline is rugged to say the least, and the tollways have had to cut through the hills to have any chance of straightening out the roads! At one point we stopped off for petrol, and picked up a good Atlante Stradale Italia (a road atlas) which will get us round Italy very well. (We're not spending much time in Italy right now, but we do plan to return in a few months!)

We drove down past Carrara, noting on the way the huge yards with large blocks of marble waiting for shipment. We got down to Pisa, and went straight in to a Campervan parking area within easy walking distance of the Cathedral and the old city. We had an early lunch, then walked straight over to the Piazza dei Miracoli, where you find the cathedral and the famous campanile, the Leaning Tower, an engineering disaster, but a touristic triumph!

We went straight in and bought tickets to climb the tower, which gave us free (untimed) access into the cathedral as well. We chose to go up the tower at 2pm, giving us an hour or so for the cathedral. The marble facade is unique, but when you go inside you get this incredible feeling of space. There is a huge nave with two rows of columns on each side producing a total of four aisles. The columns and the arches above them were a little reminiscent of the Mezquita–catedral de Córdoba. There are huge paintings down each side of the nave, and also in the dome above its intersection with the transepts. But these are almost dwarfed to insignificance by the incredible mosaic in the apse, above the altar! There's very little in the way of stained glass in this cathedral, with the emphasis being on the mosaics and the paintings. But their most prized object in the cathedral is a magnificent pulpit sculpted by Giovanni Pisano between 1302 and 1310. Where most churches have sculptures and paintings and stained glass illustrating biblical stories, this pulpit itself attempts to fulfill that role!

Hanging in the the cathedral, midway down the nave, is a is a large cast bronze lamp. It would be somewhat unremarkable, but for the fact that the young Galileo Galilei, presumably bored by the service, figured out the law of the pendulum as he watched it swing back and forth!. It is now known as Galileo's Lamp.

"I'll huff and I'll puff...."

Yes, Suzie made it to the top!

We then went out and round to the campanile. We climbed it 35 years ago, but it's a little different now. The tilt of the tower had reached 10.5° soon after we visited it last, and it was closed to the public while extensive engineering work was done on it to prevent its imminent collapse. The result of that work is that the foundations have been extensively improved, and the tilt of the tower has been reduced to 5°. So it's not quite so hair-raising as 35 years ago, but it's still impressive! Suzie insists on our revealing that, to enjoy the view from the belltower, you have to climb 260 sloping steps — and of course, the same number on the way down! The lean of the tower takes your attention from other little details, such as bas-reliefs near the base, and the six tiers of arches (seven if you count the lowest level with its blind arches). The tower was virtually never vertical, as subsidence started in its early days of construction. This is why the tower has a slight bowing, as they tried to do some correction during its construction!

View of the Cathedral from the top of the Tower

Also in the Piazza dei Miracoli you find the Baptistry, standing in front of the facade of the cathedral. This is a huge circular building with an outer circumference of about 107 metres. and which, with its domed roof and statue of John the Baptist on top, is actually taller than the famed Leaning Tower! We only looked at this building from the outside, as we were getting a little shell-shocked by now.

From here, we wandered into the old city and down to the Fiume Arno — indulging in a couple of cups of coffee on the way! We watched a sculler negotiating the Arno. We were intrigued by the glitzy new shops in really old buildings — and the chocolate 'Leaning Towers' on sale!

We also went into Piazza dei Cavalieri, one of the most harmonious squares in Italy. with its Palazzo della Carovana, which now houses the Scuola Normale Superiore, which only admits the best, hand-picked students — it has had many famous students, but one you may know of is the nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi. The painted facade is superb, and it is permanently under the benevolent protection of Cosimo I de Medici, standing on his plinth in front of the building. Also in the square is the Palazzo dell'Orologio.

Palazzo della Carovana

Cosimo I de Medici

Palazzo dell'Orologio

On our way out of town we called in to the Chiesa di San Zeno, an old abbey dating back to the 10th century. It was damaged during World War II, but has since been restored.

Then we slowly wended our way back to the van to settle in for the night.

Distance driven — today, 91 miles ( 146 km ); to date, 16,549 miles ( 26,633 km )