A Piece o’ Pisa

On the way to Pisa

July 18: We were finally venturing out into the hot world again. A trip to Pisa seemed to be the best we could do in this heat. We had considered a number of options in the area, but in the end Pisa won out. Who can resist the opportunity to see that famous tower?

Apparently hardly anyone can resist, as we found when we arrived at the main attraction. But first we had to get there. That meant a taxi ride to the train station, purchasing a round trip ticket for Terrie, and figuring out which train to take, etc. etc. All doable.

Despite the heat (and we really did try to get an early start to beat some of the heat), the train ride was lovely, going through the Tuscan countryside.

From the Pisa train station, the signs directing us to Cathedral Square were plentiful and clear; it was only a 10-15-minute walk. Given the amount of traffic in the area, we were happy to not have to deal with parking around there.

The entrance to the cathedral complex was a veritable circus, full of vendors of all sorts of gewgaws, trinkets, and cheap souvenirs, including lots of small leaning towers. We made our way through that mess and through the gate to our destination. Here's Cindy getting the lay of the land:

In front of the Baptistery:

Notice Terrie's and my hats: We had actually ventured out to the Panorama mall the day before so that she and I could have hats as attractive as Cindy's hat. We needed whatever protection we could muster against the heat. Nice, huh? The height of fashion.

First order of business was finding a restroom (that was almost always the first order of business). Having done that, we figured out what sort of combo ticket to purchase, and stood in line, which was overseen by an extremely officious employee whose role was to determine what sort of tickets we wanted to purchase and then convey that information to an appropriate ticket seller.

Cindy made the mistake of saying something like we wanted to buy tickets for Pisa. This was waaaay too generic for this conveyor of important info, and she roundly scolded Cindy, pointing out that we were not purchasing tickets for the town of Pisa. We were supposed to tell her which parts of this complex we planned to visit. It was a severe dressing down. But we withstood it, and she relented and let us proceed once Cindy had correctly identified our wishes, leaving the town out of the mix.

Back out in the heat, we made our way through the throngs having their pictures taken holding up the Leaning Tower. (You know; we've all seen those photos.)

It's just a matter of perspective...

The first thing to point out here is how stunningly white these three buildings (Cathedral, Baptistery, Campanile) are. Just blinding in the sunlight. And for contrast, check out the difference between the tower now and back in 1890:

1890-note how dark it is (the result of burning coal and other pollutants):

And today--the way its builders envisioned it (the tilt has been improved, but it's also been cleaned):

There was an option to climb the stairs in the tower. There was no way we would climb up there in the heat.

So we remained firmly on the ground to admire that beautiful structure. And it was lovely at that moment to be in its shade, looking up at those foolhardy folks who had indeed climbed the 296 stairs to that lofty balcony. Good for them.

That marble just gleams!

Yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It seems as if almost every place we visited in Europe had such a designation.

The different marble colors are used so effectively here:

A couple of interesting factoids about this tower, gleaned from Wikipedia:

•Groundbreaking was in 1173, but the building wasn't completed until 200 years later, in part because it started sinking during construction, and in part due to a series of wars that drained money and manpower from the project.

•The tower curves slightly because in the late 1200s engineers built the upper floors with one side slightly taller than the other to compensate for the tilt.

•The tower has survived at least four strong earthquakes since 1280. A 2018 engineering investigation concluded that the tower withstood the tremors because of dynamic soil-structure interaction: the height and stiffness of the tower combined with the softness of the foundation soil influences the tower's vibrational characteristics in such a way that it does not resonate with earthquake ground motion. So that soft soil that caused the leaning in the first place has helped save the tower numerous times.

As we turned away from the tower to go to the cathedral, I snapped a photo of the crowds. Despite the heat the place was increasingly jammed with people. And just looking at that crowd made me feel even hotter somehow.

I suspect that this was probably a relatively light attendance that day--but it was certainly enough for us to feel uncomfortably crowded at times.

We walked around to the Cathedral entrance...

...where there are monumental doors designed by sculptors in 1602 commissioned by Ferdinando I de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This was part of the rebuilding of the cathedral (which was originally built in the late 11th c.) following heavy damage by a fire in 1595.

Oh, and by the way, the Cathedral is also sinking...

An aside: Basically, none of the great historic churches of Europe are as they were originally built. Changing rulers added to them to further their own grandeur, wars damaged them, art was added, weather and human activity affected them, etc. So not unlike the Duomo in Milano, every church is likely to be considered still being built. History is never static.

At the entrance lots of people either milled or relaxed (at that hour the plaza was in the shade so there was a tiny bit of relief). We ventured inside, and of course found ourselves in yet another overwhelmingly beautiful interior.