Pisa & La Spezia

A relaxing drive to Pisa this morning, well relaxing until we got to the town then had some difficulty finding the tower because Mrs GPS was grumpy.

The suggestion had been made that all there was at Pisa was the tower - yes that is certainly impressive but so was the entire Piazza dei Miracoli (the Miracle Square).

Quoting directly from a brochure we picked up

"...epitomises the amazement and admiration that for centuries have seized those who ...embrace in one single glance the pure whiteness of the monuments rising over the lush green of the  turf"

And that is exactly how we felt when they came into view - there was a definite wow factor.

As well as the Leaning Tower there was also the Baptistery and the Duomo.

While one can climb the tower you have to book in advance, something we were unaware of so that will have to wait for our next visit but we brought tickets to enter the other two buildings.

The Baptistery is lacking in internal frescos and the like but there is something special in its roundness - every half an hour the staff member on door duty goes to the centre of the building and "sings" to demonstrate the echo effect of the cupola and we where lucky enough to be inside when the noon "performance" took place.

Looking down to floor of Baptistery from top level

Staff member singing

The Duomo is something else!

We have been inside many churches so far, nearly all the large ones in every city we have visited but this would have to be close to being the grandest of them all & that may even include St Peters.

Trying to give some scale to the Duomo - looking from doorway to altar. There are also side naves

It is regarded as one of the finest Pisan-Romanesque buildings in Tuscany and internally the paintings on the walls around the side of the cathedral are as good as we have seen in museums.

One of the many paintings

We left Pisa after lunch to drive onto La Spezia where we are staying for the next 2 days.

The B&B is known as the Arianna Hill House and yes it is on a hill (I too had guessed that from the name and the internet research) but what we didn't bargain on was an Amalfi type road up the hill & Mrs GPS being absolutely useless in telling us where the final destination was.

After 2 phone calls to the owner we finally found it and it is lovely accommodation being new in April 2010 and being built solely as B&B accommodation.

On our second time up the hill and now knowing where the place was as we went to turn into it Mrs GPS advised to "drive 1.5km and turn left"

The owners are also a lovely couple who have a house slightly higher up the same drive as the B&B and when we came in after tea they were on hand to greet us and have a good chat (we were earlier met by the "services woman").

After the medieval towns we had been in over the past few days La Spezia is nothing special, though the views from the B&B are!