Pisa and its Leaning Tower
Morning:
Your first thought of the morning is of the weather, as you peep open your eyes to the bright morning sun. You are grateful for the the beautiful day that is. Rising from bed, you hum as you prepare yourself for your day, continuing as you exit the house, towards the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence, Italy. It is here that you board your train to Pisa.
The Train:
The carriage fills with people heading to Pisa with you, some to the nearby Pisa airport, and others, sans baggage to explore the town. Then there are the locals, on their way to somewhere in between.
You try not to watch as couples passionately say their goodbyes then separate from each other as the train parts from the station.
As the train picks up speed, you watch the Arno river race alongside the train, its current not quite keeping pace. Joggers bound by in rhythmic motion along the river edge, sometimes in lycra-clad packs, sometimes in solitude.
From the other window you see small farms, horses in little fields, a pink house, a man-made lagoon, all flicking past.
Soon the view is the stunning Tuscan countryside, displaying itself in the window panes, before changing again as you arrive in the small historical town of Pisa.
Pisa:
Alighting from the train, you exit into the Piazza della Stazione where a group of Scotsmen in matching blue and white shirts stand guard over a large flag sprawled tauntingly over the ground, as they anxiously await the start of an upcoming football match that evening.
Crossing Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, you follow the road, around 2 large roundabouts, and head down Corso Italia. The street is closed to traffic and is alive with groups of locals, many young due to the nearby university.
Trendy clothing stores line the street, broken by cafés and gelaterias, where outdoor tables are spill onto the traffic-free roadway. Locals seat themselves at the tables, drinking short coffees over long conversations.
You manage to dodge temptation at the first three gelaterias you pass, heading on, straight ahead.
Some 15 minutes from the train station, you arrive at the Arno river which has continued on with you from Florence.
Just across the river, you arrive in Piazza Garibaldi, where you spy the most tempting gelateria yet. You give yourself in to a cone of frutti di bosco and fragola – fruity flavours that play with your thrilled taste buds.
Walking on and on, you search the skyline for your first glimpse, but to no avail.
And then, you round a corner and ahead of you, just at the end of the street you are right now walking on, you see, ahead, a bottle green and white intricately tiled facade of the Duomo (cathedral). Built in 1064, in any other setting it would be the highlight of your day.
But as if this stunning cathedral is not alone worth the effort of visiting this little city, just next to it is the reason you are here – along with literally thousands of others today…. The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The Piazza dei Miracoli:
The entire piazza buzzes with a swarm of people gathered here from all corners of the globe. And though there are so many people, their prescence actually adds to the experience of being here. In the mid-day sun, the grass fields of the area have become sun beds for all.
Signs pleading to stay off the grass are ignored in a mass lie-in protest as people relax on the grass, some reading, some taking the must-have pushing-over the leaning tower photo, couples who whisper intimately to each other, families with small rascally dogs that cause nearby families to speak with the dog owner and little kids to stop their parents to watch.
One small white fluffy dog, only a few months old, spies a sausage dog on a nearby family blanket. The white dog barks a friendly salute, and then starts bouncing frantically around the other dog, playfully lowering himself so low into the grass then springing up and away. The older, calmer dog is a little confused at first but soon starts to play the same game. Tens of people gather to laugh and watch as the dogs play, squinting in the beautiful sunshine and smiling at the simple pleasures.
The Leaning Tower:
You have made a booking online for your tower climb, and 15 minutes prior to your allocated time, you stand and enter into the nearby ticket office. You are given your tickets and move along into the locker room where you place your belongings.
Back out into the sun, you walk towards the tower.
There she stands, her famous tilt, her spiraling outer design, her crowned top. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. You admire the Italian attitude of lauding a terrible mistake into one of the world’s most famous and recognisable sights!
Built as the Duomo’s bell tower, the lean began just several levels into the building process. Over time, the lean continued to increase until in 1998 when a solution was found to stop the process from continuing.
Precisely at the time of your booking, a guard allows your small group to enter into the tower. You try to remember to pace yourself, but your excitement bounds you up the first few flights until you meet with the behinds of those ahead of you. Stopping to take photos from the slitted windows, you see the people below shrink within each passing window.
The stairs are tight and spiralled. Centuries of footsteps have worn away at the marble stairs, leaving smooth indents. You notice how on one side of the tower, the indents are to the left of the stair, yet as you round and round, the indents move across to the lean. How wonderful to think that every person who has been here has been forced by the same gravitational and natural instinct to righten the inclination.
Winding and winding you come to a small balcony, where a guard leads you out into the sunshine. There are steps here where a group of Italian teens has stopped and one asks you take a photo of them, smiling and cheeky, with the bell of the tower features in the background of their photo.
You continue around the balcony before arriving at a tiny doorway offering you more stairs. You enter in, spiraling then rising out into the sun. You are now at the top of the tower.
The sun overhead provides you with a clear day that allows a perfect view that spreads out over the edges of the town of Pisa, to ragged mountains and smooth fields in the beyond.
Looking across from one side of the tower’s top platform to the other, you can really see the lean. Tilting yourself over the edge, you spy the people, now mere sprawling ants, in the fields below. But looking out, you are just free, here, as if up in the sky looking down and out at the splendors before you.
Tags: florence, italy, school, tuscany cooking class, wine class