Lean, Mean, Towering, Merchant Marine

Byzantine Art on the Duomo

When we arrived in Pisa, we left our bus at a bus parking lot, and then boarded a city bus to reach the city center. Disembarking these 2 buses we were able to witness something ubiquitous to Pisa: African dudes hawking cheap knockoffs to tourists. They are like pigeons fighting over a piece of bread. Even before we had parked our tour bus these guys were circling with their trays of sunglasses, their belts loaded with umbrellas, and their shoulders over laden with women’s handbags. To exit the bus we had to run the gauntlet, but it was endless, and they followed us wherever we went. We finally left them behind to board the city bus, but found more when we arrived in the city center. It was a beautiful sunny day, and these dudes were trying to meet my eyes under my sunglasses, so they could sell me more sunglasses. Or, they were trying to convince me that I needed an umbrella to protect me from the sun. Hey guy, I’m coming to your country from Germany. The most sun we get is ½ a week. I’m not blocking any sunshine. I need to stock up.

Piazza dei Miracoli

Pisa is a pretty cute town, but it’s got a university, so many of the shops catered to the hundreds of students running around. It felt very youthful. Pisa is a walled city, which is always fun because you get to enter the city through a towering gate, and it feels very impressive. Once you are through the gate, Pisa’s main attractions are all right there sharing a piazza, or square. In addition to the tower, there is the duomo, or cathedral, and the baptistery, as well as museums pertaining to the history of all these grand buildings. All of this is nicely laid out on a beautifully manicured lawn, perfect for picnicking, or taking the obligatory “holding up the tower” pictures.

Oh, hey! Look who is peeking out!

We had a guide showing us around the Piazza dei Miracoli (Plaza of Miracles), but Joe and I thought he was a bit pretentious, and therefore we had a hard time listening to him. He did mention that the duomo was covered in Byzantine art, which I found interesting. Apparently, Pisans made lots of money in the shipping (with ships) industry, but they didn’t have the skill to build and decorate their symbols of wealth (the tower and religious buildings), so they paid other to come do it for them, resulting in the Byzantine art that remains today.

Romanesque Duomo

For lunch, we headed to a little café, Ristorante Antonietta, near the tower, where we ordered our first authentic, Italian pasta dishes. Joe got one with red sauce, but I opted for pesto gnocchi, and it was so fabulous. I want to make some pesto now that we’re back, but since no one watered my basil plants while we were gone, they are going to need some time to recover before we can have pesto or even bruschetta again. Maybe I can just buy a jar at the grocery store.

This bad boy is NOT level. 

After lunch, we took some pose with the tower pictures. Then we wandered the kitschy souvenir stalls where we got a tower reproduction and some cool alabaster eggs. They were made in Italy. In fact, our hotel was quite close to the carerra marble mountain quarries. Our next stop was the gelato stand. I got lemon, feeling it was an authentic Italian flavor, and it was refreshing and delicious. The even put a little anise cookie on top of the ice cream–it tasted like a pizelle.

  

Then we returned to the bus stop where we waited for our shuttle bus and tried to fend off the vendors. One particularly persistent man bothered us for several minutes before he finally gave up. He later returned to try again, and I gave him a very stern no, at which point he apologized for bothering me. I call that a win.

Useful Links!

Photos from our Trip!
Pisa Tourism
Planning a visit to the Piazza dei Miracoli
Buying Tickets Online
Ristorante Antonietta
Pisa at Wikipedia