Road Trippin’ – Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

By Ian Cobb

I was nursing a three-alarm hangover when we drove to Pisa thanks to tangling the night before with a lovely Romanian couple (who now live in Germany) at our Volterra Air B&B in Tuscany, Italy.

It started with an axe and ended with drinks on a deck watching the sun set over a nearby Cypress tree-lined villa.

I wasn’t keen about going to Pisa. For one, the hangover, but secondly, because I could care less about visiting the place, due to its reputation as being a tourist trap.

The drive didn’t begin well. After a calming four-kilometre meander down the lane that led to our farmhouse, we entered the highway, or tried to, as a group of cyclists whizzed past. And then another. And another dozen; followed by a dozen more. Then another 20 whizzed past.  They were all going in our direction. That meant we were stuck behind a massive flotilla of cyclists clogging the narrow, winding highway. Be prepared for such events if you intend to drive in Tuscany any time in the future. Be patient with them and also the persistent tailgaters behind you.

Once free of the clog of cyclists, the rest of the trip north from Volterra was delightful and it was thrilling to get on an Italian freeway and blast into Pisa (population 90,000) and cross the Arno River, which we stayed beside while in Florence, 88 km east, earlier in the trip.

Finding parking near Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) featured a sketchy encounter with a local fellow. We passed a vacant parking spot on a street near a hospital only a few blocks from the square and the friendly fellow shouted the space was available and we didn’t have to pay because it was Sunday.

I circled the block and this kind guy saved us the space and I parked our rental car. The fellow then aggressively asked for money to “look after” our car while we did the tourist thing. I told him we were “good” and we walked away. I immediately felt like we were going to return to a violated car. We did not, thankfully.

As one approached the Square of Miracles, the flood of humans grew to a torrent and we were swept into the square, looking up and marveling at a complete bed-shitting of engineering!

The marvelous Piazza dei Miracoli is the beating heart of Pisa’s tourism industry, including the world-famous Torre di Pisa (Leaning Tower), Battistero di San Giovanni, Duomo and Camposanto (a cloistered cemetery with a host of interesting art, sculptures and tombs), among other attractions.

The Leaning Tower (nearly 56 metres tall), was built between 1173 and 1372, unfortunately on soft ground influenced by the nearby floodplain of the Arno River, which caused an eventual 5.5 degree lean that was corrected to the current 3.97 degree lean after work done between 1993 and 2001.

One must climb almost 300 steps, staggering to the side thanks to the lean, which is clearly shown in the stone steps, worn out from more than 600 years of footsteps, to get to the top of the bell tower.

And it was worth every huff, puff and sigh as one waited for slow moving people to get up or down the stairs in the tight confines of the stairway.

Once at the top of the tower the view of Pisa and the distant mountains was stunning.

It was fun capturing photos of tourists doing the ‘hold the tower up’ photo shoot. People lying down and holding their feet in their air or leaning against nothing, looking silly. They were having fun, though and the general mood throughout the square was light, even with soldiers stationed in twos and threes throughout.

Speaking of tourists; Pisa was the location where we learned the hard way that clothing restrictions (no knees, mid-riffs or shoulders showing) can and do apply at many Italian cathedrals and churches. After waiting in line to enter the Duomo, we were turned back as Carrie had bare shoulders. D’oh! So off we trudged to score a t-shirt (for me that she could wear that day) and with that deed done, walked back, waiting in line again, and entered the Duomo to find we could only access the narthex (entry) to the cathedral as Sunday mass was occurring.

After another unsuccessful attempt to gain entry to the massive fortified walls that wrap one side of the square (that required another ticket aside from the ‘all inclusive ticket’ we purchased to gain entry to the tower, duomo and basilica – which was closed), we decided to pack it in for Pisa and found a place for an average lunch, where we watched hard-hustling African immigrants trying to vend watches and listened to the endless rattle and roll of baggage being tugged by tourists from all over the globe.

In the end, I found Pisa more enjoyable than I thought I would and in hindsight wish we had spent a little more time there as there is much more to see than just the Leaning Tower, which was really cool to see up close.

Civilization has flourished at the mouth of the Arno River dating back to at least 5th Century BC. The area is lousy with the passage of history, including being captured by Viking prince Bjorn Ironside in 860 AD (the Viking in me must point this out), so a deeper dive in the area would be worth it.

Our day to Pisa was concluded by a drive to nearby Lucca, where a severe thunderstorm greeted and followed us as we sliced through six to 10 inches of surface water on a slow-moving crowded freeway. It was the most ferocious downpour I’ve experienced in decades!

It was a memorable day and Italian memories grow sweeter with age.

Here’s a brief video with more images of Pisa.

Photos by Ian Cobb and Carrie Schafer

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