Hong Kong John

The jury is still out in terms of whether I fell into a tourist trap while staying in Florence – the classic “You can see Pisa in a day”. This is certainly true for the UNESCO world heritage site that is the Piazza del Duomo (containing the famous Leaning Tower, of course) but I’m quite certain that many of the 80,000+ inhabitants of Pisa would know a lot more about the city and the little nooks and crannies I could have wedged myself into while there. Because of the way I was planning the next few days however, today was always going to be a day trip so I did what I believed was the next best thing. Near to Pisa is a wonderful neighbour city called Lucca, which was famous for its medieval city walls that are still largely intact today. I therefore decided to use my day to visit both and get as much in as possible. It would be more appropriate to say I visited the Piazza del Duomo and Lucca today, rather than the whole of Pisa.

To say that the Piazza del Duomo (also commonly known as Piazza dei Miracoli, by the way – “square of miracles”. Note this is different from Campo dei Miracoli or “field of miracles” which was a fictional place in Pinocchio!) is a sight to behold is a gross understatement. The piazza itself is a huge green area with the cathedral, bell tower and baptistry on it, and almost nothing else. A row of stores lines a small part of one edge, but that really is it. If any tourist attraction genuinely was a ‘playset of the Gods’, I would say this space resembles it most. The buildings are awesome to behold and people look like ants from every angle.

All of the buildings can be entered into, and the bell tower climbed for a fee. The view at the top of the tower gives a spectacular overview of the old town of Pisa, although I confess on this trip I did not make the trip up myself as there was quite a large crowd and queue. The detail on the architecture can keep one mesmerised for hours. However, there were significantly more important things to do, like take cheesy tourist photos. Traditionally people have their photos taken leaning opposite the bell tower, leaping over it or propping it up, so I thought I’d try something slightly different.

A little known fact about the bell tower (not originally a bell tower incidentally, the bell-chamber was added almost 200 years after construction began) is that to compensate for the obvious lean of the structure, from the third floor upwards one side is actually built taller than the other. You can almost imagine, if you look closely enough, that the tower is ‘curving’  very slightly towards the top in favour of being upright. Finally, despite appearances the tilt of the tower is only at about 4 degrees as of 2010 (as much as 5.5 degrees pre-1990). For some reason when looking at it, though, this angle seems larger! Finally, if you include the statue at the very top, while it doesn’t look it the baptistry is actually very slightly taller than the tower (By something less than a metre admittedly)!

After a quick lunch, some friends and I spent the afternoon just half an hour’s drive away in the historic city of Lucca. The city is famous as a properous historical city (in the 13th century it even rivalled Florence) with a very unusual characteristic about it: the walls of the city remained where they were as the city expanded as the military need for them diminished. Since then, the walls have become walkways for locals and tourists alike. I was unable to take a good looking shot of a large section of the wall as it’s obviously quite wide, but found a nice spot to give a good impression of what it was like to walk on top of them.

The walls of Lucca themselves were build between the 16th and 17th centuries and are just over 4km long. There were a grand total of 11 bastions and 12 embankments, and room for a whooping 124 cannons to be fired at anyone from outside who had hostile inklings. They are the fourth set of walls to be set around the city, with the first three being the Roman walls of the 11th century, medieval ones of the 13th century and another set of walls in the 15th century. A re-evaluation of defense techniques in the 16th century led to the current set of walls being constructed.

Not only have the walls themselves become an attraction, but the fortified spaces inside of them have also been put to good use! I happened to stumble upon one section that turned out to be a war museum, explaining the history of the city walls and how they were protected. I wouldn’t want to mess with one of these bad boys when functional.

On top of the walls are a variety of paths, statues and other decorations around the incredibly old trees that are present almost everywhere, creating a park like atmosphere. The perfect place to relax, or in my case look around…

Eventually after some picnicking and lying around in the sunshine (on the walls of course) we came off of the walls themselves to take a walk around a portion of the city. We walked past the Duomo di San Martino, which was constructed in the 11th century by a bloke who just happened to later become Pope Alexander II.

What was most alluring about this place was not the elaborate structure or history, however; unlike many grand cathedrals in Italy, there was a great feeling of humility and tranquility inside the church itself and the atmosphere was peaceful rather than grand. In fewer words, it was calm, to the point and beautiful!

Finally, before heading home we went to grab a drink at one of the city’s public water fountains, which deserve a very special mention here. Over a period of about half an hour we noticed many people, some coming in vehicles, coming to collect the water out of these fountains en-masse and in massive containers as well. This left us quite perplexed as tap water, we were told, was still safe to drink in Lucca. There must therefore have been a special reason everyone flocks to the fountain – and indeed we found it. After filling up our own canteens, for some bizarre reason it was the tastiest water I had ever tasted.

The day trip ended here with the drive back to Florence, but I would love to return to both places visited today in the future – Pisa to take a closer look at the local culture in the city, and Lucca to relax and soak up what I would describe as an incredibly chilled out atmosphere compared to most places I had been in Italy thus far. A thoroughly enjoyable day out!