Pisa

Church of Santa Maria della Spina. Built in 1230 to house a spina (thorn) from Christ's crown.

Fiume Arno 

Cittadella Vecchia

Today we went to Pisa! We caught the train - luckily we were about 20 minutes early - because we at least had seats for the trip! We arrived at Pisa Central (who would think the train station there would be SO busy?) and eventually made our way out to the Piazza outside. Then to find the sightseeing bus - no signs, no people - eventually found someone to ask - they only come every hour - but they couldn't tell me at which part of the hour! So we had coffee, drink, cookies and settled down in a shady spot to wait.

Old Wall and Tower. It was built around the Duomo for financial and military reasons.

Duomo and Baptistry. The Duomo was begun in 1064 and finished in 13th century

Front of Duomo with Tower in back, taken from the upper level of the Baptistry

Wall and Tower from the upper floor of Baptistry

The Baptistry taken from the upper level. The Acoustics and Echo in here were amazing - no wonder there was a big sign saying SILENCIO!

Bus finally arrived and we hopped on board - we did the whole circuit first. The areas on either side of the river create a wonderful scene - it was really appealing. The remainder of the centre of Pisa is like most other towns - it had some nice bits, old buildings and churches - new bits, sparkly, and then there were the sections that needed a little bit of a spruce up.  There were a fair few buildings with scaffolding - so plenty appears to be happening.

We eventually ended up back at Piazza die Miracoli - where the Duomo and infamous tower are located. Lunch (pizza of course!), visit to the Duomo and Baptistry (stunning, again, lots of paintings and sculptures), tourist mementos and gelato. The boys were a bit disappointed that we couldn't go up the tower - but unfortunately you have to be over the age of 8 to climb it! Ethan had to settle for the pre-requisite pictures of trying to hold it up and trying to push it over! Jacob just liked that there was lots of lawn to run up and down and around on!

Most of the paintings in the Duomo were in this style

According to the sign - the pulpit is the most important work of art in the Duomo - sculpted by Giovanni Pisano. It was done in the early 14th century

The Urn of San Ranieri - Patron Saint of Pisa

Close up of part of the fresco painted on the dome of the Duomo

The main altar

Madonna di sotto gli Organi - attributed to Berlinghiero di Melanese.  It is not known when it was painted - but it is generally accepted that it was brought to the Cathedral in 1226.