Pisa Day Visit

Today our class took a day trip out of Florence to Pisa. 
Pisa was different than I pictured it to be. Of course there is the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but not much more. It is a pretty small city. We had a tour through the landmarks of the city. This consisted of touring the Campo dei Miracoli including the Baptistery, the Cathedral, the grave yard and hearing the history of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was cool to see some very famous artists work here, like the work of Cimbue, Giovanni, and the architects of each building.

The Baptistery is known for the acoustics. One of the guards stood in the center and sang up towards the dome. It was a beautiful sound. It sounded like there was a whole choir up there. This is because the ceiling was originally a pointed dome, which later a spherical dome was added over.

The Cathedral was gorgeous. It took your breath away! Within it is The Urn of San Ranieri. He died in 1161, but they keep his body in a glass casket there. It was kind of eery. The ceilings were marvelous covered in carved wood and gold leaf.

The grave yard was interesting, covered in buried tombs and the walls painted with frescos. Majority of the frescos were ruined in a bombing during the World Wars, but it was awesome because you could see the original sketches behind them.

The Leaning Tower. It was much harder to take a picture than it looks. I got one holding it up, but it isn't nearly as cool as I thought. The tower is most certainly leaning. There is a whole story as to how it sunk in the soil on the west during the building process and how it has been added upon and stabilized over the last couple hundred of years. It is crazy to think it is a stable building. I am kind of glad we did not go to the top of that building. 

Well that was just another day in paradise for me. Here comes yet another weekend in Florence. We will see the adventures I come up with next.
ciao!

J