The train station was like most, unimpressive, but it only took us a few minutes of walking away from it before we were standing at the beautiful Piazza Vittorio Emmanuel that goes in multiple directions.
It was flea market day, many vendors selling their old belongings such as old China, jewelry, paintings, silver, glass, knives, letter purses, etc. We browsed and took the most traveled street into town.
It was Corso Italia which is a pedestrian street with fancy shops and restaurants. We decided to have lunch before the town goes to sleep at 2pm and stop serving food and all stores are closed. We picked a restaurant off the main street, Il Capodaglio Osteria - Trattoria on Via del Carmine, just steps away from Corso Italia, the menu displayed outside looked authentic. It was a small trattoria with red and white checker tablecloths and red napkins. We walked in and were the only ones there. We didn't think anything about it as it was early so we anticipated more people coming in later. That wasn't the case. But we were lucky enough to get exclusive service from the owners. The conversation started with their menu of the day, then moved to talking about Italian restaurants, their requirements to be in business, and the differences between bars that serve food and trattorias. We heard his own story in this town, how he had 7 months of good business and 5 months very slow but he chooses to stay open the entire year. He also shared that can't afford to hire any Italians to work at the restaurant as he needs every penny to survive the down time. He, his wife and daughter do it all. He also said restaurants are for the tourists, Italians do not go out to eat as they can't afford it. He was wearing a Boston sweatshirt; we soon found out he is a huge fan of American basketball since the Larry Bird and the Celtics times and knew the names of all the players. He also knew all the names of the players from the LA Lakers from Magic Johnson and Abdul Jadhar, to James Worthy, etc. We ended up spending over two hours eating and talking to him. Eventually, he sat down at another table with his wife and daughter to eat their lunch. We couldn't help to see they were eating pasta, bread with olive oil and wine instead of water. Yes, we ordered "still" water. Great food, great conversation like being in someone's home. When we left, they left behind us closing the doors until 7pm.
We continued walking. Like everywhere we traveled in Italy, it seems bridges and piazzas are the landscape. Corso Italia took us to a bridge Ponte di Mezzo over the Arno River surrounded by bright colored buildings; the typical Italian look of warm and attractive colors all aesthetically chosen.
We continued down the street, now called Borgo Stretto, with shops like Louis Vitton, Prada, and more. We hit an end and without knowing we had headed in the right direction to find what is known as Campo dei Miracoli, or the Field of Miracles. It consists of The Duomo, the Baptistery, Camposanto Cemetery, Duomo Museum, and the Leaning Tower all created in a Romanesque style. It is a site in itself.
I was expecting a much taller tower. It's 200 ft tall and 55 ft wide, leaning at 5 degree angle which is 15 ft of the vertical axis. In other words it is eight stories high. If you have been here you know how crazy people get trying to get that picture pushing the tower with hands and some with their feet....we laughed watching them, but we had to do it and had many takes before we got it right! As you can see, Ed did the world a favor and prevented it from collapsing! 😉
Duomo cathedral impressed me the most. It was free to get in, but we still needed to go to the ticket office to request the voucher. Luckily the line was a breeze and soon we were in. This cathedral has so much art from floor to ceiling that we were in awe all the time there. The pulpit, the duomo, the main altar, the floors still the originals from centuries ago, a work of art in itself, the columns, more altars, the benches....so beautiful in very sense. Better than the Duomo in Florence (my humble opinion).
We walked the Field of Miracles up and down. I cannot help but wondering about men that did all this work, the time spent doing it, without having the the joy of seeing the finished product after probably decades of working on it. The tower took over two centuries to be completed with at least 3 different architects trying to straighten it up. The first stone was laid in 1173. Here we are in front of it in the XXI Century witnessing what today is considered one of the seven wonders of the world.
On one side of the Field of Miracles there is a huge wall, like a fortress with arches, taking you to the other side which is a totally different architecture. Walking in the opposite direction there is a beautiful park surrounded by tall pine trees. Continuing around the square we walked into the old town of Pisa with narrow cobblestone streets. If a car came by, we as pedestrians needed to step aside to let the car go by. As we walked admiring the doors, the window shutters, the wall colors all bright and warm and passing a few shops selling fruits, vegetables, and basic Italian foods. We took it all in, no rush. Stopped by a park where many folks were walking their dogs. Charlie always comes to mind when I see other dogs. We always see dogs walking without leashes and notice the leash is on the master hand. This is everywhere and dogs walk next to their owner like another person. We also kept noticing that dog owners do not pick up you know what....therefore you have to walk looking down all the time to avoid stepping in it. Excuse me, but this continues to be my only complaint in all the cities we have visited across four countries in this journey.
It was a cold day and I was craving a hot chocolate. We entered one of the local coffee bars with three bar stools and barely any room to move and ordered my "cioccolata calda"... It was lush, heavy, rich and hot....I enjoyed every sip.
What a leisure day we had in Pisa.
No comments:
Post a Comment