Wanderings: Pisa

January 20, 2018

Our flight to Pisa was coming in for a landing, when we suddenly accelerated, passed over the airport and gained altitude. I signalled to the flight attendant there we were going around again and she nodded (1). A few minutes later, the pilot announced that she was not satisfied with the visibility as a low cloud was sitting over the runway and we would circle until the cloud lifted. "Don't worry" she said, "we have plenty of fuel." While circling, we had a good view of Elba, the island where Napoleon was first exiled in 1814 (2).

The Pisa Airport has one distinctive feature I very much appreciated: it is quite pedestrian friendly and close to the city. I had a nice 15 minute walk to the central train station, dropped off my backpack (3), and crossed the Arno River to the main tourist area of Pisa, with its iconic leaning tower.

The leaning tower of Pisa is something you really need to see to appreciate. It was a very interesting experience to walk up the tower's steps, as the pitch of the tower means greater or lesser effort is required to climb depending on which side if the tower you are on. It almost felt as if the tower was moving during the ascent. I was fascinated by the wearing away of the stone steps as people climbed the tower, over the centuries leaving ruts in the middle of the stairs.

At the top of the tower, I tended to stay on the side opposite to the lean. I am not a thin guy, and I did not want to tempt fate by putting my girth on the downward side. Upon descending, I noted that there was considerable discoloration on the stone stairway walls in the direction of the lean caused by people bracing themselves themselves with their hands when climbing and descending.

On the return trip to the train station, I noticed a very pleasant church right on the Arno. I stopped for a visit at Santa Marias della Spina. Apparently, the church had one of the thorns (spina) from the crown worn by Jesus in the crucifixion story. The church was very well maintained and had a really interesting wooden ceiling. There was some art in the center of the church consisting principally of a large number of empty boxes which had at one time had held Corona beer. The artistic merit of the display eluded me.

As night fell, I took a short train ride to Livorno. Walking over to the ferry terminal, I had a cappuccino at a local place in the Venetian quarter (5) of the city.

As the overnight ferry to Sardinia left the harbor, we encountered some large swells that would continue all night. In the lounge,
we had an uproll to starboard as the bartender was pouring my drink, causing a large extra glug of Bailey's to splash into my glass. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders; I silently thanked the sea gods for making it a double!

Soon, the high school soccer team that was in the lounge with me wandered off. Now, it was just me, the singer and the bar tender. The singer looked a little green around the gills from the heavy movement of the vessel, and he packed it up for the night. I took this as a sign and went to bed.

(1) I had my first experience with an aborted landing last year in Boston. On that occasion, the pilot announced that he "saw something on the runway he didn't like," so we went around again.

(2) Napoleon shortly thereafter escaped from Elba, recruited a new army, and was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815, in what is today Belgium. He was subsequently exiled to St Helena, a small island in the mid Atlantic from which escape is much more difficult.

(3) There should a some sort of humanitarian award given to whomever invented the luggage storage facility. Schlepping my backpack around Pisa would have slowed me down and would have created a fuss entering the leaning tower (a). I know how to say only two things in Italian: "pizza" and "where is the left luggage facility please?"

(a) I move with purpose and alacrity while travelling. Most tourists, like most teenagers, seem to have three speeds: amble, slow and still. BTW: I consider myself a traveller, not a tourist.

(4) I recently read a book about an collaborative effort by Leonardo da Vinci (painter on the Mona Lisa) and Nicollo Machiavelli (author of the Prince) to divert the Arno River away from Pisa. Such a diversion (it was hoped) would permit the Florentines to subdue their perennial rivals in Pisa. Their attempt was unsuccessful.

(5) So named for the canals in this part if Livorno.