Monday 27 August 2007. We get up early to watch as the Island Star sails into the industrial port of Livorno in Italy. It's our second time here, as we did this same cruise last year. On that occasion we took a trip to Florence. This time we are taking an excursion to Pisa.
The famous tower is one of three buildings in a large grassed piazza, the Piazza del Duomo - the Cathedral Square. In addition to the cathedral and the tower, which is the cathedral's free-standing bell tower, there is the Baptistry. We'll see that in a little while.
The main basilica or cathedral (or duomo...) has some wonderful carvings including several Roman stones incorporated into it. The builders weren't all that bothered by which way up they should have been or whether the carvings faced the interior or exterior. This one, if you tilt your head to the left, has a carving of two Roman galleys passing a lighthouse.
Inside the cathedral it is equally as stunning. The lantern hanging from the ceiling is the very same one that was watched by choirboy Gallileo. He was astounded to find that no matter whether it swung a little or a lot, the swing from one side to the other took exactly the same amount of time.
He started to experiment with gravity, climbing to the top of the leaning tower (it has been leaning since soon after its first building) and dropping both heavy and light articles from it. He learned two things. One - that both light and heavy articles fell at the same rate. Two - that the heavy ones hurt more when hitting the top of someone's head after being dropped from the tower...
We come out again and take a look around. This is the Baptistry which also leans, but not as much as the tower. All the roofing tiles have been removed from this side, presumably to allow for roof maintenance.
Inside the Baptistry is a central huge font - the Baptists believed in total immersion. The floor of the Baptistry is raised slightly towards the font allowing spilled water to drain towards the edge of the building. There are a number of galleries which give a superb and prolongued echo. Our guide ushered us in before 11:00am and then shushed us with a strident "Silencio!" which echoed around the place for ages... The Keeper of the Baptistry, a robed lady, walked to the edge of the central font and lifted her head before singing the three notes of the C Major chord in succession. The echo took the notes and merged them into a perfect musical chord.
The place was absolutely full of people standing with their hands up, hoping that the photographer would produce something superb... like this... [coughs modestly] It's amazing how old these buildings are - the cathedral was started in 1063. Three years before William of Normandy set off to do battle with King Harold at Hastings! It was completed in 1092.
The Leaning Tower was started in 1173 and completed in 1372. It started to lean almost from the very beginning.
Reluctantly we follow our guide out of the walled piazza. To reach the bus station involves a half a mile walk, which takes us past more souvenir stalls. We bought a Leaning Mug of Pisa to bring home!
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