Pisa (not only the Leaning Tower)

Today I finally ventured out of Florence and visited Pisa, which is about an hour away by train.  Navigating the train scheduling and ticket processing was a little bit of an adventure, but I figured it out in the end and was in Pisa by 1:00.

The reason most people go to Pisa is to see the leaning tower.  And I saw it.  It leans.  Wow.

However, the area around the tower, called the "Field of Miracles" is actually much more interesting than the tower itself.  Back in the olden days (like around 1200), Pisa was a huge port city and naval powerhouse.  The field of miracles was built in order to show the people who flocked to Pisa from all over the world how impressive a city it was.  The main focus of the square is Pisa's own Duomo (the "Leaning Tower" was actually meant to be the bell tower for the church).  However, in 1284 the Pisa navy was defeated by Genoa and the power of the city declined dramatically, with only its field of Miracles and its University as its claims to fame.

The sites on the square are in an architectural style that is unique to Pisa, and often called "Pisan Romanesque."  While most Romanesque architecture can feel really heavy these buildings are a lot lighter, with a smattering of everything: rows of thing columns, Gothic gables, an geometric designs inspired by mosques from the Muslim lands whose traders came to Pisa.  The buildings are gorgeous, and the style is interestingly different from what I've been seeing in Florence.

Here are some pictures.  The Baptistry is on the left, the Duomo on the right:

So, while Pisa is a tourist trap for the tower, I found going to the other sites a lot more enjoyable.  The tower is cool, but after a while watching the billionth tourist take a picture where they are fake-propping up the tower gets really really old.  So instead of climbing the tower for 15 euros, I spent 10 and got a combination ticket to every other site on the square, including the Baptistry, the Duomo, the Camposanto Cemetery, the Duomo Museum, and the Sinopia Museum.  The only one I didn't go to was the Sinopia Museum (Sinopias are original sketches for frescos.  They let both the artist and the patron see what they were getting before laying the plaster).

BAPTISTRY:

The Baptistry was awesome.  Yes it has a pulpit by Nicola Pisano (sometimes called the "Giotto of sculpture") and sure, that was cool.  But the really neat thing is the acoustics.  Echos hold for about 10 seconds within the building, so if you can sing three notes in 10 seconds, they will make a chord.  Every half hour, a security guard comes in and demonstrates this.  I stayed long enough to watch it twice it was so cool!

CEMETERY:

The Camposanto Cemetery is on one side of the square.  It is a beautiful building and has a gorgeous courtyard inside.  It was neat to walk around and look at all of the sarcophagi and plaques on the floor marking tombs.  Each one had the coat of arms of the person buried there, and it was fun to see all of the different houses.  A lot of them are damaged though, because the building was bombed during WWII, and the lead melted off the roof, damaging a lot of the floor.  The walls are lined with frescos, and they even have the chains that used to hang at the harbor mouth in Pisa.  When Pisa was defeated, Genoa took the chains and gave them to Pisa's archrival, Florence.  After reunification they were returned as a gesture of goodwill.  All in all, the cemetery was interesting and most of all relaxing, especially considering it was a really hot day and this gave me an opportunity to hang out in the shade!

From left to right: the outside of the cemetery, the inside courtyard, and the chains from the harbor:

DUOMO + MUSEUM:

I'm not going to lie, I liked the inside of the Pisa Duomo more than the one in Florence.  The nave is made of up a huge row of striped marble columns, and there is a huge Byzantine-style mosaic over the altar.  There is also a pulpit by Giovanni Pisano (son of Nicola).  Finally they have "Galileo's lamp", or the incense burner whose pendulum-like swing was supposed to have inspired a young Galileo (professor at the University of Pisa!).  They also have the mummified body of Pisa's patron, St. Ranieri. More relics...

I also visited the museum, where many of the original sculptures from the facade of the Duomo are kept. Most of the important works are statues by the Pisanos.  They also have a lovely courtyard that has a nice view of the tower.

    

So overall my day in Pisa was lovely.  It was nice to get out of Florence and see the surrounding area, but once I got off the train at Santa Maria Novella, I was happy to be back.  I can't believe I'm leaving so soon!