Pisa

My first visit to Pisa was in 1988, part of a 2-week bus tour, starting (and ending) in Rome, with overnight stops in Florence, Stresa (on the gorgeous Lake Maggiore), Venice, Assisi, and Sorrento. I was with my grandparents, then in their late 50s.  Whether either of them accompanied me on the climb to the top of the Leaning Tower I cannot recall. The view was impressive, and just like that we re-embarked the motor coach and continued to our next destination.  As a teenager, I gave little thought to when I might be back.

An extensive renovation started in 1990, and 11 years later the tower was once again open for business.

This past October, I had the pleasure of climbing the tower again, part of a self-guided 10-day Italian vacation, which included visits to Venice, Lucca, Viareggio, Montecatini Alto, and, of course, Rome. While the tower was, technically, straighter this time, the climb, up the nearly 300 narrow, twisting steps, seemed more demanding.  The view from the top, however, was just as impressive, with the Field of Miracles in the foreground and the rest of Pisa, bisected by the Arno River, in the background.

Our trip that day started in our home base of Lucca, about 20 minutes by train from Pisa.  We chose a B&B (Relais Inn Lucca), just within the town walls, with a comfortable 2-room unit and a modest, but fabulous, complementary breakfast, usually consisting of local, rustic breads, salumi, formaggi, Tuscan melon, and the obligatory (when in Lucca) cappuccino (or two).

We disembarked at Pisa San Rossore train station, a sleepy stop at the outskirts of Pisa. From there, we walked about 10 minutes to the Field of Miracles, comprised of the Leaning Tower, Duomo, Baptistery, Camposanto Cemetery (which includes a huge medieval fresco anticipating, and quite fitting to the mood today, the plague that would overtake Pisa in 1348), and Museum of the Sinopias.  As we approached, we were (pleasantly) surprised to see the finish line of the Pisa Half Marathon, on the Piazza del Duomo, a more epic backdrop to a conclusion of a race one would be hard pressed to find.  We purchased the combo tickets and, to our surprise, our wait time for the Leaning Tower was only 30 minutes. After the tower, we visited the other sights on the Field, before turning on to Via Santa Maria, crossing the city in a less than linear fashion, arriving at the Pisa Centrale Station to catch a 20-minute train north to Viareggio.

Another visit to Pisa is not impossible, although it will need to wait until the waters calm and the world re-opens for business.  A recent Los Angeles Times article pictured a worker in a haz-mat suit power-washing Piazza del Duomo, with the Leaning Tower in the background.  Our world has been transformed, seemingly overnight.

If the past is any indication of the future, my next visit will be in 30 years, likely on a bus tour, just like the first one.  Whether it will include a climb to the top of the tower I can only guess.  Perhaps other opportunities (to visit Pisa) will present themselves, such as guest lecturing at the University of Pisa, but that is a project for another day.

Despite borders closed and a “shelter in place” or lockdown in place for many places in the world, we can still look back.  More importantly, to maintain our collective sanity we can, and should, still plan, for a future with travel, for motion, a change of scenery, new beginnings, and climbs.

Comments welcomed.