Pisa

It was the day of arrival for the VIP guest, our daughter was bringing our eldest granddaughter to stay, but she was just staying for one day to drop her off, then leaving us in charge of an 8 year old princess!

From the riverside boatyard we took the bus to Pisa town centre and then a short walk to the airport to meet them. They arrived keen to look around Pisa so we walked back through the town and found a nice cafe for lunch. With luggage in tow, we decided to save the main sights for the following day, and got the bus back to Ziggy.

In the evening, we launched Ed and Fred into the river and cruised along to one of the riverside fish restaurants for dinner. The food was very good but it seemed that the highlight was the many geckos crawling around the walls next to our table.

After breakfast the next day we headed back to town and walked around the busy streets with grand buildings, piazzas, narrow alleys tucked away from the main streets and the river Arno running through.

As we walked around we came to the Tuttomondo mural which was painted on the wall of a church building by Keith Haring in 1989. Piergiorgio Castellani, a young student from Pisa, met him one day in New York and suggested they travel to Pisa to create one of his street art works. Haring willingly accepted and was welcomed with open arms. Before beginning to paint, he strolled through the city to absorb its colours and vibrancy. The idea was to illustrate universal peace, love and harmony between humans, animals, and nature.

Eventually the tower was in sight above the buildings and we soon arrived at the Piazza del Duomo (or Piazza dei Miracoli).

Pisa is described as an open-air museum, and this piazza is the site the city’s four most famous medieval monuments; the circular Baptistery, the largest in Italy with a circumference of 107 metres; the Cemetery built in 1277 and thought to have holy earth carried back from Palestine; the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, a masterpiece of Pisan Romanesque architecture (currently undergoing a restoration process and unfortunately partly covered with scaffolding); and the bell tower, (Campanile), or Leaning Tower of Pisa, known throughout the world for its unique tilt.

The area was very busy with everyone wanting to see the Ivory splendour of these historic buildings built between the 11th and 14th century, a symbol of the wealth of the Maritime Republic of Pisa. The monuments were constructed to have an important religious centre in the city symbolising the main stages of every man’s life: birth with the Baptistery, life with the Cathedral and its Tower, and death with the Cemetery.

The tower is approximately 55 meters high. Construction began in 1173, but being built on an unstable foundation of soft soil, the lean soon became apparent. Work was halted for a century after the first few floors were built. Later, attempts were made to compensate the lean by making the remaining stories taller on the shorter side, but this only caused the tower to sink further. It was not completed until the 14th century. 

The tower looked significantly different than last time we had seen it, almost 30 years ago, when it was covered with metal straps and supporting wires. However, after major stabilisation work, it is now standing without support and is safe for visitors to go inside. We decided not to go in after seeing the huge queue.

Next stop was the 16th century botanical gardens and museum. Covering two hectares, with plants from several continents, we were able to find plenty of welcome shade under the trees. Quite a relief, having picked the hottest day of the year to visit the city.

There is also a small botanic museum, the facade is completely covered with shells, stones and corals to symbolise minerals, plants and animals. Inside there were many 17th century portraits of botanists, it also housed objects related to the teaching of botany, such as the botanical models in wax and plaster, samples of plants, the botanical instruments and stuffed animals. Oh, and it was air conditioned.

After a late lunch stop it was time to drop our daughter back at the airport, then we were on our own and returned to ZigZag with a very excited granddaughter. She had plenty of ideas of what she wanted to do during her stay, mainly involving beaches, swimming, ice cream, restaurants and perhaps a bit of site seeing.

With her requirements in mind, the next morning, we took the bus to the beach. It was a lovely sandy beach, surprisingly not too busy, laid out with sun beds, parasols and had a protected swimming area, ice creams were also available, it therefore ticked lots of boxes. There was a row of small beach cabins which you could use, they looked like they were from the 1970’s but very useful.

After a successful day, we got the bus back and prepared to leave the boatyard the next day. One of the jobs while we had water available was to clean the boat, but someone had different ideas of how to have fun with a hose.

We left the dock and motored back up the river. We planned to just do a short journey to test out the sea legs of our new crew, and return to Livorno. The sea was calm with just a light wind, the journey went well, and we arrived in Livorno without incident!