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Pisa
Since the beginning of the age of the tourist brochure,
PISA has been known for just one thing - the Leaning Tower,
the favourite shorthand image for the idea of Italy. It is
indeed a freakishly beautiful building, a sight whose
impact no amount of prior knowledge can blunt Yet it's
just a single component of the city's amazing religious
core - the Campo dei Miracoli - where the Duomo,
Baptistery and Camposanto complete an unrivalled quartet
of medieval masterpieces. These, and a dozen or so
churches and palazzi scattered about the town, belong to
Pisa's "Golden Age", from the eleventh to the
thirteenth centuries, when the city, then still a port,
was one of the maritime powers of the Mediterranean. The
Pisan Romanesque architecture of this period,
distinguished by its white and black marble facades, is
complemented by some of the finest medieval sculpture in
Italy, much of it from the workshops of Nicola and
Giovanni Pisano. The city's political zenith come in the
second half of the eleventh century with a series of
victories over the Saracens, whom the Pisans drove out
from Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. Decline
set in early, however, with defeat at sea by the Genoese
in 1284 followed by the silting up of the harbour. From
1406 the city was governed by Florence, whose Medici
rulers re-established the University of Pisa, one of the
intellectual forcing houses of the Renaissance; Galileo,
Pisa's most famous native, was one of the teachers there.
Subsequent centuries saw the city fade into provinciality,
but the modern city has been revitalised by its airport
and industrial suburbs and, of course, money from tourism.
This province capital with its mild climate has around
100,000 inhabitants. Pisa sits on the banks of the Arno
river approximately 10 km. from the coast. The city is
known for its art and is particularly famous for the
monuments in Piazza del Duomo, with its Leaning Tower,
recognised by the humanitarian organisation UNESCO, and
the memory of the splendour of the maritime republic.
Galileo's fatherland, Pisa boasts an university which is
one of the oldest in Europe. Napoleon founded here the
Scuola Normale Superiore, the only one in Italy, to which
belongs today the homologous Scuola S. Anna. For centuries
it has been the destination of scholars and travellers and
over time has become developed its fame as a hospitable
city. Very interesting from the touristic point of view:
the whole Pisan Coast with Marina di Pisa (12 Km),
Tirrenia (15 Km), Calambrone (18 Km), Marina di Vecchiano
(17 Km), the charterhouse of Pisa (10 Km), the basilica of
S. Piero a Grado (10 Km), the Natural Park of Migliarino,
San Rossore, Massaciuccoli (23,000 hectares of coastline
with woods, marsh areas and more than 200 species of
migratory birds).
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