The Little Things In Life: Project WWT Day 23 of 72

10th June 2017

The Italian weather has been very kind to us, too kind in fact as we had got ourselves some "nice" tan. My darker tone is stark when I hold Naaman's hand, thanks to our visit to Cinque Terre. I could barely recognise my own hand! Today started early for me as I set foot to explore Pisa alone in the morning. My itinerary for Pisa is very sinple really, there are only two places that I intend to visit. First is the Orto Botanico or Orto Botanical garden and secondly, the Piazza del Duomo.

Along my way to the Orto Botanico, I walked passed some senior Italians fishing along the canal and stopped by to see whether they have caught anything. There are plenty of fishes in the canal and I could see them when I crossed the bridge so I would think that it should not be difficult to hook them. They use a simple setup - a long rod, short line with pin floater and hook. They used a flour mixture as bait. I would use worm instead as their bait seemed to melt too quickly in the water. Anyway, I stayed there for 15 minutes. One of the italian guys hook a fish but did not managed to land it. After 15 minutes, I left without much to show for my 15 minutes investment 😆

When I was about to leave, one of the local anglers hooked a fish but I could not spend additional time to spare for fishing activity, oh well.

The Orto Botanico coss €4.00 to enter and ithe fee enable visitors to access the garden and a simple museum. Nothing much in the museum but some wide variety of collections of sculptures, paintings and botanical apparatus. The garden has various flora from around the world most notable being the bamboo grove, ancient Ethiopian Cedarwood, old Giant Oak and pink water lily pond. There are hardly any people here, which is not surprising as most would want to visit Pisa and head straight to the Piazza del Duomo itself to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I don't blame them because the architecture is a beauty to behold. However, do give the botanic garden a visit and rejuvenate by walking along the trees and plants and get a view of the leaning tower from the garden itself.

After exiting the Orto Botanico, it only takes you a 5-10 minutes walk to the Piazza del duomo. You will pass by a nice little walkway - Via Santa Maria where you get all the tourist trap restaurants and horse carts. It is nice for a walk and photo in the early morning before the touters arrived. For those intending to take a photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa against a clear blue sky, remember to visit the piazza in the evening as the morning sun will cause the sky in the backdrop of the leaning tower to be a little too bright. However, the morning would give you a good opportunity to take a photo of the Baptistry of Pisa against a blue sky. With this in mind, it has been in our itinerary to revisit the piazza in the evening when the sun is not as merciless.

I have been intending to take a taxi from the piazza back to the apartment but couldn't find any on the road, so I ended up walking back all the eay from the piazza. My morning escapade lasted 3 hours, exact! Not a bad workout for the day.

We visited the piazza again in the evening with the boys. The sky is beautiful. Its perfect for taking the leaning tower and the cathedral. For families travelling with kids, children below 12 are not allowed up the leaning tower, which costs €18.00 but you can visit the cathedral for free. You need to get the entrance ticket at the museum on the shophouse side overlooking the cathedral within the piazza. Oh, by the way, if you really need a taxi, you can wait for one at the taxi stand near the horse carriage station.

Overall, the Piazza del Duomo is a beautiful place and I'd say a must to visit. The design also makes it a safe place amidst the recent multiple terror attacks on POI in the Europe. Pisa has its ZTL and non-local registered car will be fined a hefty price for entering and even if you could, the piazza is not accesible by car. Think this setup would be a good example for the other POIs in Europe to guard against terror attack by car or truck. Oh, it is always interesting to be in a cheesy POIs like the Leaning Tower of Pisa because you can see people doing their thing as shown in the photo below :D