Pisa

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Pisa

Thursday was a great day. We traveled about an hour outside of Florence to the little town of Pisa with its famous leaning tower. I read in Mike’s latest blog that he was going to the tower of Pizza, I didn’t go there. I’m not sure where that is.

The main attraction in Pisa is, of course, the tower, church, baptistery, and the cemetery. The area is called the “Field of Miracles”.

In A.D. 1200 Pisa’s power peaked. For 3 centuries (1000-1300) Pisa rivaled Venice and Genoa as a sea-trading power. It prided itself on its independence from both popes and emperors. That all changed when the Pisan fleet was routed in battle by Genoa.
Now it is known only for its “Field of Miracles” and its university.

The tower, which is a bell tower, was built over 3 centuries. It was started in 1173. It wasn’t long after the tower was started that the lean was noticeable. There was an effort at that time to correct the lean and again in 1272 and again in 1350. There were some other attempts made to correct the lean and some of then helped. Then in 1990 the lean was so bad a last attempt was made to fix it and now it is believed that the tower is stable. It now only leans 5 degrees, enough to get a good picture.

The Cathedral is probably one of the loveliest churches I have seen so far. I will include some pictures that show some of the special things inside. I know not everyone is as crazy about churches as I am but these buildings are hundreds of years old and have survived some cruel times.

I have been trying to find out why the style was to stripe all of these churches but I haven’t been able to find out.

There was a little ornate gothic church in Pisa also but I couldn’t find any thing about it.

On Friday we went to the Galleria dell’Accademia and gazed at Michelangelo’s David. Although I have seen and enjoyed many sculptures, I believe that this is my favorite. Originally, David, was meant to stand on the roofline of the Duomo, but was placed more prominently at the entrance of Palazzo Vecchio (where a copy stands today). It was moved indoors for its own protection and stands under a wonderful Renaissance-style dome designed just for him.

Later Mike and I walked around Florence and took some pictures and had a coffee, then walked around some more and had a gelato. It was a good afternoon.

This week we will visit Lucca, the Uffizi Gallery and spend a couple of days in Venice.

I hope everyone is well. Please keep Mike and me and our students in your prayers. There appears to be progress in both their interest in the scriptures and their English skills. We haven’t said too much about the students individually. They share a lot of stuff and we are reluctant to share publicly our time with them.

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Photos

Big Group
Big people follow the number sign

Little Group
Little people hold on to the rope

Ann and I
At Zá-Zá a great restaurant