The Field of Miracles

The sights of Pisa, Italy beyond just the famous Leaning Tower

When Pisa was a world trading power riding high on its maritime empire in the 11th to 13th centuries, it used its wealth to commission a new religious core for the city. This Campo dei Miracoli, or "Field of Miracles," is a collection of marble-clad buildings beautiful in their simplicity and crafted in a Eastern-influenced style that became known as the Pisan Romanesque.

PISA 101
Information
www.pisaturismo.it
Where to Stay
Hotel Royal Victoria
Hotel Francesco
Hotel dell'Orologio
Hotel Verdi
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The fact that the campanile, or bell tower, of this group is a little off kilter attracts hordes of the curious to Pisa all year to pose for snapshots of them holding up the Leaning Tower.

Pisa is one place whose main sights you can comfortably see in 2-3 hours—a good half-day trip from Florence (picnic on the grassy plot in front of the Leaning Tower before heading back).

Getting to Pisa

Half-hourly trains from Florence make the trip in 60-75 minutes. From the train station, bus 1 (or a 15-minute walk) will take you to the Piazza del Duomo (a.k.a. Campo dei Miracoli).

The Field of Miracles

The Campo dei Miracoli, a huge grassy lawn studded with gleaming white-and-gray striped Romanesque and Gothic buildings, is one of the most beautiful squares in all of Italy. For info on all of its sights: tel. +39-050-387-2211, www.opapisa.it.

The cathedral bell tower, better know as the Leaning Tower, would draw crowds even if it didn't have such horrible posture. Its long cylinder of white marble threaded with the lithe arches of stacked colonnades make it one of the prettiest towers you'll ever see—albeit 15 feet out of plumb at the top.

The big engineering problem is that all that marble is too heavy for the shifty, sandy subsoil of Pisa, and it started listing right from the get-go in the 12th century. Attempts to correct its tilt during construction gave it a slight banana curve.

Beyond Newton's Apple
Pisan scientist Galileo Galilei spent the 16th century observing the motions of pendulums, asserting the Earth revolved around the sun, and dropping balls of differing weights off the Leaning Tower to prove they would hit the ground at the same time. Many people at the time thought he was kooky, and the church even excommunicated (and nearly executed) him for the blasphemy of suggesting the Earth wasn't the center of the universe, but today we know Galileo as one of the fathers of modern physics.

The slant got so dangerous by 1990 that officials closed the tower to visitors, wrapped steel bands around it to keep the shear forces from ripping apart the masonry, and stacked unattractive lead weights on one side to try to reverse the lean by a few feet. By TK they deemed it safe enough to reopen to visitors—thoguh if you expect to get in and climb to the top, you'd be wise to book ahead.

Pisa's Duomo (cathedral) is a massive Romanesque structure with blind arcades running down the side and a facade of stacked colonnades. Make sure you check out the medieval bronze doors on the back side of the right transept, facing the Leaning Tower (the only set to survive a 1595 fire). The interior was rebuilt after the fire, but a few details remain from its earlier era, including Cimabue's 1302 mosaic filling the apse of Christ Pancrator, and in the aisle one of Giovanni Pisano's greatest carved pulpits (1302-11), whose panels are a masterpiece of Gothic sculpture.

If you liked the Pisano pulpit, check out the one his pop Nicola Pisano sculpted in 1255-60 in the Baptistery. This massive drumlike building has a Romanesque base, but Nicola and Giovanni Pisano finished it off with a Gothic skullcap of a roof, all minispires and statuettes. Get the guard to trill a few notes at the baptistery's center so you can hear the brilliant acoustics bounce around (when a choir sings, you can hear it for miles).

The north end of the square is bounded by a long wall of Gothic marble that quietly heralds the Camposanto, a kind of cloister-cum-mausoleum whose halls are stuffed with ancient sarcophagi and Renaissance tombs, separated from the grassy central courtyard by delicate Gothic three-light windows. Allied firebombs in World War II destroyed most of the dazzling medieval frescoes that once covered the walls, but the few that were salvaged—including the macabre Triumph of Death—are on display in a side room.

Fresco 101
In making a fresco, the artist first lays down rough plaster, on which he makes a rough sketch. Then in sections he applies the smooth plaster that will hold the fresco, painting on it while it's still wet (this helps the color bond to the surface). In restoring frescoes, preservationists often uncover those preparatory sketches called sinopie, which offer unique insight into the artists' thinking process.

Across the square from the Camposanto, hidden behind the souvenir stands, is the Museo delle Sinopie, which contains the sinopie, or preparatory drawings, of the destroyed frescoes (see "Fresco 101" box to the right). Note: in 2007/08, this museum was closed for a multi-year renovation.

Behind the Leaning Tower is the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, which houses many of the statues and other works removed from the outside surfaces of the Duomo group for safekeeping. Among them is an 11th-century Islamic bronze griffin, part of Pisan war booty during the Crusades. On the second floor are etchings of the Camposanto frescoes that were destroyed.

Eating & Sleeping

Just down the street from the Leaning Tower and its associated miracles of architecture, the family-run Hotel Francesco (Via Santa Maria 129; +39-050-555-453; www.hotelfrancesco.com; from €76 online) is one of my favorite inns in Pisa—for the friendly management of the Corradino family, the free Internet in the lounge, and the views of the top half of the Leaning Tower from the breakfast terrace.

It's hard to beat the centuries of (slightly tattered) class at the Hotel Royal Victoria (Lungarno Pacinotti 12; tel. +39-050-940-111; www.royalvictoria.it; from €80 online) overlooking the Arno River. It's been a hotel since 1837, and some rooms are in ancient stone towers, others are covered in faded trompe-l'oeil frescoes of wall curtains. For all its slightly musty style, I really dig this dimly-lit holdover from the era of the 19th century Grand Tour.

The Villa Kinzica (Piazza Arcivescovado 2; tel. +39-050-560-419, www.hotelvillakinzica.it) may not be much to look at, but it's just a few yards from the Campo dei Miracoli with doubles for €90–€110 (ask for a room with a view of the Leaning Tower).

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For one of the best meals in town, head just north of the city walls to Da Bruno (tel. +39-050-560-818), Via Luigi Bianchi, for excellent traditional Pisan cuisine in a trattoria setting.