Day 4: Pisa

Its been a fairly relaxing day - if for no other reason that Pisa is substantially smaller than Rome and I didn't have to walk around as much.

The train ride up here passed through some really picturesque Tuscan scenery. I also almost didn't make that train this morning. As an American, I've grown used to long lines, intrusive searches of my person, and minute instructions (the result of generations of abusive litigation in our industries). None of this was present this morning when I frantically searched for my train at 6am. Sweating, embarrassed, I found the right train, tried to collect myself, and was fortunate enough to sit my an American family that indicated that they too had the same difficulty.

But you don't really want to hear about that, do you? What you want are cool pictures of the leaning tower. Done. (See right)

What some of my readers (look at me, assuming I have readers), might not realize is that the famous leaning tower of Pisa was actually begun in 1173 AD and took over a hundred years to finally complete. It is actually the bell tower for the enormous cathedral, the Pisa Duomo, which you see to the right in the photograph. Behind the Duomo is the largest baptistery of its kind.

This baptistery has to be experienced, not just seen. The acoustics are such that one voice can produce an amazing sound by contrasting pitches over one another as they are held for a prolonged period by the round, domed structure. An attendant demonstrated this to the tourists, but I didn't think to try to record it until too late, so all you get is this photo (to the left) and this link to a YouTube video that I think approximates my experience decently (although the woman that performed for us was much better). The photo below is the inside of the baptistery.














The remainder of my day consisted of examining the really old frescos that had been damaged by Allied bombing, reading/sleeping in the grass, and eating some really good gnocchi in a pesto sauce.

I scoped out the church building here in Pisa a while ago, and I'll be going to the first LDS chapel built in Italy tomorrow and taking the day off for some much-needed physical and spiritual rest and rejuvenation.

Ci vediamo domani!