After finishing up the Sculpture course in Carrara, I had two days before my plane left Italy. The cost of two more nights at my cheap hotel in Pisa was countered by the exquisitely cheap RyanAir fare, so I wasn’t too upset about having extra time. Once again I took the train, this time from Carrara to Pisa.
As I mentioned before, Pisa failed to impress me on my first stop there. The area between the airport and the train station is a bit run down and, although not industrial, gives off an industrial vibe. It’s filled with cheap hotels, hostels, B&Bs and any other synonym you can think of for “cheap place to stay”. The closer you get to the train station, the more industrial the vibe. The streets are dirty, the buildings covered in graffiti and there is a musty, damp smell in the air.
As you move away from the train station and head toward the river, you leave that industrial vibe behind and begin to see that Pisa was once a historic city. But Pisa reached its peak in 1200 it seems, and since then it has gone downhill. Although there are some interesting sites and historic buildings, the city has a dingy feeling to it like it was abandoned by its original owners and is now lived in by squatters who could care less about the state of things.
I thought that after I crossed the river things might get better, and to an extent, I was right. There were more historic buildings here, but the level of care and restoration varied greatly. Some were covered in graffiti while others were nearly pristine. I found the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa which resides in a marble clad building which is decorated not with carvings, so much as engravings. There is no attempt to shape in 3d here, but the artwork is still amazing, created by engraving lightly into the marble and then stained in some fashion, either intentionally or with age.
It seems the only really clean areas were the tourist parts of the city, especially around the Piazza dei Miracoli, where the leaning tower is located. This area is well worth the visit, though. If you are coming to Italy, make Pisa a day trip and spend the afternoon looking at the Duomo, Baptistry, Bell Tower (the famous leaning tower) and Camposanto. For €18, you can climb the tower, but that price was a little dear coming at the end of my trip like it did. I did pay to see the museum and the other buildings, though. The Camposanto is an indoor cemetery where people are buried in the walls and floor, like in many cathedrals. Lots of memento mori imagery- skulls and crossbones and such- can be seen among the monuments here.
After spending a long afternoon at the Piazza dei Miracoli and a bit of wandering about, I headed back to my hotel near the airport; the next morning I left Italy with hopes of returning again soon.