Itinerary
Day 5 – This morning you will say farewell to Florence and drive to Vinci, a picturesque town set among Tuscan hills, vineyards, and olive groves. You will visit Casa di Leonardo, a farm – house that was the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, which displays some reproductions of his works. From there you will go to view the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa on your way to Rome, the “Eternal City.” You will check into your hotel. Dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight at your hotel in Rome
It was overcast with a little mist in the air as we left Florence this morning on the 1.5-hour drive to Pisa. Our tour manager Flavio and Todd decided to skip Leonardo’s birthplace as not really worth our time in order to give us more time in Pisa to view the cathedral’s interior and see some of the other parts of town that most tourists skip, then grab a quick bite to eat before boarding the bus for a 4-hour drive to Rome.
Pisa = “Marshy Land”?
We caught glimpses of the famous leaning tower as we entered town and approached the bus park. Guess how long we had to walk from the bus park to the walls of the old city? Yep! It is about a 15-minute walk – it seems everything is a 15-minute walk!
Once we were through the Porta Nuova (new entrance) of the medieval walls of Pisa, we found ourselves in the beautiful open green space surrounding the baptistry (appears leaning due to wide angle, but it isn’t!), cathedral, and the famous leaning bell tower beyond.
The baptistry (or baptistery) is known for its wonderful acoustics which a few members of our group chose to experience.
There were only a few groups in the Piazza del Duomo, so it was not terribly crowded when we arrived. Flavio obtained our tickets (free but required) to enter the cathedral (officially the Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary) for a look around.
The exquisite polygonal pulpit was sculpted by Giovanni Pisano from 1302-1310 and is considered a masterpiece for its intricate depiction of the Christian narrative – Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, as well as the representation of the Virtues supporting it. Per the adjacent sign it “stands out as the most complete, most organized illustration of the Christian doctrine of salvation and redemption ever provided by sculpture”. Giovanni’s father Nicola sculpted the pulpit in the Baptistery some 40-50 years prior.
Apparently, there was no requirement for soil sampling prior to building in the 12th century. Consequently, the campanile (bell tower) began leaning to the southwest during construction due to unstable soil. The name “Pisa” comes from either the Etruscan or Greek and means either “mouth” (the mouth of the Arno River is nearby) or “marshy land”. So, it seems like this issue should have been known already!
Construction stopped after the second floor was added due to the subsidence and not continued until nearly a century later. The tower was finally completed in 1372, 199 years after breaking ground. The construction of the upper floors took into account the angle of the lean at that time.
By 1990, the angle of lean was 5.5 degrees and engineers predicted a complete collapse unless it could be stabilized soon. The tower was closed to the public for remediation and reopened in 2001 with a new lean of 3.97 degrees (12 feet 10 inches or 3.9 meters) off vertical. Supposedly it’s now stable for another 200-300 years – but the girls in the bottom left of the adjacent picture seem to have their doubts!
Then we had about 90 minutes free time before we needed to meet back at the clock tower to walk back to the bus. Flavio offered to show us more of the town, including a Medici palace, the tower from Dante’s Divine Comedy, a statue of Galileo, plus additional churches, restaurants, shops, and gellatarias.
It was graduation time and we saw many graduates wearing wreaths parading through town with friends and family.
Dave and I found a sidewalk café to grab a bite and a drink and people-watch before heading back toward the meeting area. As the Aperol Spritz was on display at nearly every restaurant, I had to try one!
On the way back to reunite with the group, we asked some young American girls to take our picture in front of the leaning tower. We skipped trying to pose holding it up!
Back to Rome
On the 4-plus hour drive to Rome, Todd took a few minutes to give us an overview of the 4 Prison Epistles aka Captivity Letters by Paul – Phillipian, Ephesians, Philemon, and Colossians. The book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome from where he wrote these letters, thus the tie-in to our journey.
I took advantage of the long drive to work on some blog posts, while also taking in the scenery. This is the hilltop village of Orte, originally established by the Etruscans (c. 700-300 BC). For more on the Etruscans, see this Note from last fall.
Following a 30-minute comfort stop for snacks and stretching, we got back on the road to Rome and discovered there was a wreck shortly ahead that ended up delaying us for at least 45 minutes. More traffic delayed our arrival at the hotel until closer to 7. Luckily, the restaurant for dinner tonight was only a couple of blocks from the hotel (NOT a 15-minute walk!), so we made it there in time for our 7:30pm reservation.
Tomorrow we will hit the ground running again with many iconic sights in Rome on the agenda!
Notes By Nancy 
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