Agni TRAVEL - enjoy Greece, Italy, Turkey and Cyprus

Pisa is of course famous for its Leaning Tower, but this is not the only building of beauty and interest in this historic city. The Leaning Tower itself is the bell-tower of a magnificent Duomo, or Cathedral, that took 400 years to complete and influenced Italian architecture enormously.

For most people, Pisa is synonymous with the Leaning Tower and that's all there is to it. This is far from the truth, however.
The city of Pisa has a history going back many centuries, one in which the multiple threads of Italian history interweave dramatically. It was at one time a great maritime power, and its rule over the Mediterranean Sea west of Italy rivaled that of Venice in the Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean. In the middle of the 13th century however, it suffered a series of defeats and lost thousands of sailors from its great fleet. In addition the River Arno on which the city is built began to change course and access to the city's all-important port became difficult. The Genoese, pressing for control of the region, wrought a great deal of destruction on the port and the surrounding area and matters were finally resolved when the river silted up and Pisa could no longer claim to be a port.

An indication of the complete decline of Pisa is the fact that its population has barely changed in numbers since those far-off days of the Middle Ages.
Pisa, however, is a pleasant city to visit and one filled with magnificent buildings, museums and art collections. Oddly enough, one of its most interesting sights is a large graffiti mural executed by Keith Haring, a lively composition featuring 30 figures painted in his distinctive style.

There are two other towers in Pisa that lean, but the only one that counts is the beautiful and elegant marble tower in the Campo dei Miracoli.
Originally the bell-tower of the neighbouring Duomo, construction began in 1173. Continuous settling of the building, constructed on sandy soil, meant that it took 200 years to complete, allowing for lengthy periods in which the building was allowed to 'rest'. Some say that the building was designed to lean, but this has been refuted, though it cannot be denied that the architects did not seem at all surprised by what happened. The Tower was closed from 1990 until 2001 for the completion of an elaborate stabilization project and it is once again open to visitors - on a strictly regulated basis.
(Climbing the tower requires a reservation based ticket for 15 Euro. Expect 45 minutes to 2 hour wait, but there is a lot to see while you wait.)

There are no shopping malls in Pisa, but several traditional arcades have good selections of clothing and fashion accessories.
Via Buonarroti and Via San Martino are quite well-known shopping streets. Borgo Stretto has a bigger selection of goods including leather goods and fine woollen fabrics, jewellery and artisan crafts. Anyone interested in music will be delighted by the stringed instrument shops of this area.

Apart from the usual weekday markets, Pisa has two antique markets, open every second weekend of the month. These are to be found in Piazza dei Cavalieri and at Ponti di Mezzo

About seven years ago the national railway company decided to build an electrical station in the marshy flatlands just outside Pisa. This spot could probably be dismissed as one of the few places in Italy with absolutely no aesthetic value, were it not for the fact that as the railway crews started to dig, they uncovered 30 almost perfectly preserved wooden ships dating from 200 BC to 500 AD. Inside the boats were more than 1000 amphorae.
Eventually there will be a museum devoted to these rare finds, but it is still possible to visit the dig, by special reservation.