Day 24: Pisa for the Day

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day Tripping
Rising in the morning with slight symptoms of a hangover, I dressed and headed out to the train station. Destination: Pisa. Before leaving for Italy, I reserved a time to climb the tower, so I wouldn’t be restricted to whatever time slot was available when I arrived. It was my third time visiting the Pisa train station, and I think it’s the weirdest one I’ve seen. There is a waiting room with benches, but the walls are painted a shade of fuchsia that makes your eyes squint just looking at it. And there are black lights in the toilet stalls. Maybe it was an attempt to be modern, but it only accomplished creating an atmosphere of an Ikea reject. To use the bathroom here, by the way, was €0.60.

Which Way?
Getting to the campus was not hard, once I figured out what bus to be on and where to find it. The city does not have big sign posts saying “Stand here for the Field of Miracles.” Instead, I watched a sea of tourists pour from the train station and bombard every local in their path about which bus to take. When the mob had it figured out, I just followed them and boarded the bus. The ride was packed for the 15 minute drive through town, and the driver announced very loudly when we reached the destination.

The Field of Miracles
When I got off the bus, I saw a slew of souvenir stands in front of a city wall with a dome peeking up from behind it. As I passed through the brick arches, I had a “wow” moment. Spread out before me were the gleaming white buildings of the cathedral, baptistery and leaning tower, made even sharper by the very green lawn and blue sky. I haven’t had a lot of moments where I thought, “I can’t believe I’m in Italy looking at this in person,” but this was one of those moments.

Museum #1
I collected my tickets an hour before my climb, so I went to one of the museums to kill time. If you buy the pass for the entire campus, as I did, you might as well visit each site. However, if you are only going to select buildings, this museum would not be worth it. It’s big claim to fame is that it houses the rough drafts for frescoes, discovered only in the 1980’s. Before artists would begin their work, they would doodle cartoon figures to get the proportions right, and then copy the image to the wall where the fresco would painted. The methodology behind it was more interesting to me than the actual artifacts.

The Big Climb
Everyone is required to check their bags and purses before climbing the tower. The system is pretty smooth and secure, so I wasn’t concerned about leaving my purse in the provided locker. They do allow you to take a camera and water bottle, both of which were very necessary for me. I lined up with the crowd and waited for my scheduled time.

I’ve climbed old domes and towers in the past, so I knew to expect steep steps and narrow passage ways. I did not expect the challenges presented by climbing a structure which is not horizontal. Between the deep and uneven grooves in the steps and the major tilt of the tower, all I could do was stumble upward with the same uneasiness as a drunken person. It made me laugh out loud, because the experience was so unexpected.

Being at the top of the tower did not make me feel any easier than I did walking up the steps. There was a very thin rail between me and the ground far below. The views were fantastic. I think the tower was designed to be the same height as be cathedral and baptistery, because I felt like I was eye-level with the statues on top of each dome. By this time, lots of tour buses had arrived and I saw a thick wave of tiny people come into the campus through the brick archway, attacking the souvenir stands on their way. It was pretty comical. The panorama of Pisa and the surrounding hills was very pretty.

Museum #2 and Lunch
After collecting my bag, I headed to the second museum which housed many relics from the cathedral. The lower floor featured many statues from the 1300’s. It was interesting to see how idealized beauty changed from century to century. In Renaissance Florence, the angelic look of antiquity was desired. But these older statues had different features that reminded me more of northern influences. The upper floors had a couple paintings and robes worn by former bishops, but noting wildly exciting.

It was time for lunch, I was starving. But among all the ticky-tacky souvenir stands, there were very few food vendors. I found one toward the back of the campus that was selling €2 mini pizzas. The food was equal to what you would find at a gas station, but it was warm and filling. I sat on a shaded patch of lawn and watched people take their goofy photos with the leaning tower. After lunch I joined them.

The funny tourist shots aside, it was actually very hard for me to take photos of the tower and surrounding buildings. The tower leaned a lot more in person than it seemed to in pictured I had seen before. Usually I try to make sure my photos are squared appropriately so the vertical lines are vertical and the horizontal lines are horizontal. So to take a picture which included the tower, I had to really concentrate to use a real vertical line as a benchmark and not the tower, otherwise my pictures would turn out as crooked as the tower itself.

Cemetery and Cathedral
I ended up going into the buildings in reverse order of the general chain of life: cemetery, cathedral, and then baptistery. The cemetery was much different than I expected, in a good way. When I read about it, I pictured a nicely manicured lawn with old tomb stones straight, Roman rows. Instead, it was a rectangular building with a courtyard in the middle. It was lovely. The floor was paved with tombstones, just like at Santa Croce church in Florence. I wonder if the people, before being buried here, intended to be walked on after they were dead.

The cathedral entry was monitored by the “modesty police”, and I was prepared with my shawl. The most striking feature of the cathedral was its ceiling. It was painted gold and blue, the colors of my old bedroom at my parents’ house. The dark interior had a feeling of majesty, versus some of the dark churches which just felt depressing. I didn’t look at the art much; a crucifix here, a Virgin Mary there.

The Baptistery
Of all the buildings on the campus, I liked the exterior of the baptistery the most. Maybe it’s because I thought it was an ancient observatory when I was little (and it does look like one). I walked into the round room and looked up into the dome, wondering what inspirational message the people used to see when they were baptized. I saw a blank wall. No paint, no fancy decorations, this building was bare of art. I was so underwhelmed; the exterior was so beautiful, how could the interior be so plain? Maybe a march up the steps to the gallery would change my perspective. Nope, all it did was make me out of breath.

When I came back down to the ground floor, a guard was closing the doors and silencing the crowd. Another guard stood in the center of the room and began singing notes, directing his voice toward the dome. His voice echoed for ten seconds, and he actually sang harmonies with himself. Ok, I decided, the walls and dome do not need to be decorated. The art is meant to be heard, not seen. I tried to imagine a whole choir singing in this building and thought it must have sounded like heaven.

To Lucca, Or Not
After that grand finale at the Field of Miracles, and the crowd getting thicker by the minute, I left to catch the bus to the nearby town of Lucca. I found the bus stop, I read the timestable, and I waited. And waited. Two scheduled pickups later, the bus still hadn’t arrived. Both the Italian lady who was waiting for the Lucca bus and I gave up and we parted ways with a “Ciao.” Lucky for me, the bus stop to get back to the train station was right across the street, so in my frustration, I admitted defeat and aimed my way back to Florence.

How’s Your Chinese Food?
Weeks of Italian fast food and restaurant dining made me miss my standard menu of Chinese and Mexican food. The food in Italy is great, but I’ve had several meals which were almost exactly what I make for myself at home. I needed to change it up a bit, and there was a Chinese restaurant around the corner from my hostel.

For most of the evening, I was the only non-Asian person in the restaurant. I pigged out on spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken and chow mien. It was delicious. Salty, greasy, deep fried, it was exactly what I needed. In fact, there was very little difference between the food at this place and the food I get from my favorite take out place back home. I also enjoyed not having to be dainty when I ate my food. The other restaurant patrons held their bowls of rice up and shoveled food into their mouths. No eating french fries with forks here. When I returned to the hostel, I was thoroughly stuffed and happy.

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Photos

cathedral detail
mismatched columns

Tower stairs
they get smaller the further up you go

Sinking tower
You see the floor surrounding the tower, and the ground level above

Sketches for frescoes
He looks like a cartoon!