Sylvia e Lisa, In giro a Pisa

I was in Pisa for a wedding - after the festivities were over, Lisa E. showed up for a course on Dante in a nearby town. While both in Pisa, we took the ultimate bike ride, through some of the back streets of town. Have I ever said this is the real reason I go to Italy?

Piazza Cavalieri, "Torre della fame"

Lisa's first priority was to see the tower where Conte Ugolino was imprisoned, seen here under restoration. This is where, in 1289, accused of betraying the city by Archbishop Ruggieri, Conte Ugolino was imprisoned without trial with his two sons and two nephews, and left to die of starvation. According to legend, he resorted to cannibalism. Dante encounters him in the 9th circle of hell, gnawing on the cranium of Ruggieri. According to an account at www.pisahistory.it, he was tried and absolved of all charges in 1989, during a historical reconstruction of the Piazza. His bones were found in the nearby church of San Francesco.

I took the niece and nephew out bike riding too.

W la torre di Pisa!

It's open again! If Galileo did in fact drop cannonballs from the tower, this is where he would have been standing. I hadn't climbed up to the top since I was somewhere between the ages of my niece and nephew. This time, I had to take them up there. I hope they have not been permanently damaged. In Pisa, there are many strange beliefs, one of which I had never heard before. You aren't suppose to climb the tower until you graduate or you might not. Perhaps that is why I never got the Ph.D.?

In the footsteps of Galileo - stairs inside the tower -

If enough people continue to climb these stairs, eventually they will become smooth and the inside of the tower will become a slide.

View of Pisa, from the Monti Pisani

Also referred to by Dante, as the place to which Conte Ugolino was driven when exiled by Ruggieri, and that prevent Pisa from being able to see Lucca. If you look closely, you can see the leaning tower off in the distance.

Medicean Aqueduct

that once brought water to the city from the Monti Pisani

Nearby lookout tower in the Monti Pisani

Left: Main towers

Right: Stairs linking different levels of the fort. Based on a design similar to that used by Brunelleschi for the dome of the Florentine cathedral, they could easily be destroyed to cut off access in the event the lower level of the fort were to be captured.

Supply route

Another tower through which supplies could arrive during a siege, from which access could be cut off if captured.

Left:: seen from below

Right: seem from above

Left: Ser Brunelleschi

Right: Cyrus in armor (aka, my nephew)

Pinocchio Park, Collodi

Left: map, Paese dei Balocchi

Right: park entrance

Left: Pinocchio and Gepetto

Right: Pinocchio on a blue horse

Ciucchino

Left: Pinocchio as a donkey

Right: puppet show in which Pinocchio is a donkey made to perform in the circus

In bocca alla balena - (into the mouth of the whale)

In the original story, Pinocchio was swallowed by a shark, where he found Gepetto. I thought it was Disney who turned the character into a whale. So did the park. I was a bit disappointed.

The labyrinth

oops, dead end

Florence - Boboli gardens

Left: rose garden in full bloom

Right: sculpture