My sweet sister-in-law sent me a cool photo. A woman with a suitcase, back to the camera, facing two doors. One says “Italy,” the other, “Everywhere else.” That woman could be me!
We’re back!
This morning at our first airport, I chatted with a woman while waiting for TSA to finish our screening. I told her, “I feel like I could visit Italy at least once a year for the rest of my life.” She had nothing but sympathy.
We are in Pisa for one night, before we meet our hiking tour group back at the airport tomorrow. We’ve been moving, one way or another, for hours. Our route took us to Chicago, Frankfurt, and finally here. With hours to to wait before our room was ready, we set out for espresso, a walk, and gelato. Finding the botanical garden was a huge bonus.
La Delizia was on the way to Piazza Vittorio Emmanuel. The piazza was busy as the Pisa marathon is tomorrow. On the way, we also paid respects to Pisano, the father of modern sculpture, so they say. He is known as Pisano since the city adopted him.
Next we were off to find that leaning tower, by way of gelato. Our hotel reception had recommended Gelateria de’ Coltelli. It was an excellent choice. Artisanal for certain, and flavors were also labelled “0 km” in some cases, meaning the ingredients were as local as they could be. With that in mind, my cono picolo had chestnut cake and sheep’s milk yogurt as the two flavors. First day of travel and this place will now be the one to beat for the rest of the trip.
Along with thousands of others, we found the Piazza dei Miracoli, where the leaning tower, cathedral and baptistry are located. We will be returning here later on this trip, so we did not tour today. We did take the funny tourist photos of each other holding up the tower.
All three building are confections. Pisano did the pulpit inside the baptistry, so that is sure to be a highlight. I am looking forward to learning more.
The crowds could be annoying, and I am glad we are not here in the high season. Today, though, I found the crowds fun. First, so many are trying to take the same photo. It’s interesting to see the strategies and stagings. It actually takes a little effort, and I recommend a healthy marriage before you try to direct your spouse to move millimeters to capture the photo.
Even cooler though, is that this is an iconic area for recent graduates to have their photos taken. When you defend your baccalaureate (I assume most graduates were University of Pisa students), you are given a wreath of laurels to wear in your hair! Friends come with champagne and we could hear corks popping around us. The graduates glow. This is more like a Ph.D. defense I think– individualize and not hundreds on the same day. The graduates look radiant. It was like watching a wedding party.
We left to walk to the botanical garden. The university claims they have the first academic botanic garden in the world, founded in 1543. They also strongly imply that Luca Ghini, who founded the living collection, also founded the world’s first herbarium. The living collection is a series of planting beds organized by family. In botany, once you know the taxonomic family of a plant, you actually know quite a bit, so this is the level students need to learn to have an instinctive recognition for. We all do, to some extent– most people can recognize the grasses, or sunflower family, for example.
I was curious, though, which taxonomy the garden uses, since plants get moved into and out of families as more and more is learned about their DNA and evolution. This garden really is for teaching, and so the plants beds are rearranged as needed, to keep up with the current scientific understanding, I learned.
There are also some greenhouses (conservatories,glasshouses). One had the very amazing succulent from South Africa. The stunning red flower is a hibiscus. I’ve nicknamed it “beginners” hibiscus, because it is presenting the pollen and stigma & style so far below the petals. In reality, the length likely has a lot to do with the size of the bird that pollinates is (a hummingbird or honey creeper.)
Our walk back to the hotel took us past the tiny Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina. Translating to St. Mary of the Thorn, this is the church’s second name, given when it received a thorn as a relic. A thorn would be quite a relic to have and this tiny church must have been really crowded! Today it is not a place of worship but rather displays religious art. It also had a replica of the Madonna del Latte– Madonna of the Milk. The original has been moved to a museum. It’s a tender statue of a nursing mother, carved by father and son, Andrea and Nino Pisano (who were not related to Nicolo– and people think botanical names are confusing!)
One Response
I have some catching up to do. This is a great place to start.
HOWEVER – where are your “funny tourist photos” of the leaning tower?? They made mention yet are not shared!!?