| Overview | Things to do | Suitability | Country Info (Italy) |
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Pisa is one of Italy's most popular tourist attractions due to its distinct style and culture, although this is the case its main draw card is ironically one of the worst architectural blunders ever made, famously known as the 'leaning tower of Pisa'.
The leaning campanile attracts hordes of tourists and what was once an embarrassment of architecture now features some of the most advanced architecture and technology from keeping the tower from falling. Although dominated by its campanile, Pisa is by no means a one attraction wonder, other equally notable attractions to the area include its long maritime legacy dating to 1000 BC, its famous university and its status as the birthplace and home of one of the world's greatest physicists and astronomer, Galileo Galilei. Pisa also features one of the most beautiful squares in Italy known as the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). It is here that the famous tower was erected, whose layers of heavy marble were built on a shifting subsoil foundation that has caused trouble for engineers for more than 800 years. Tourism in the area has for a long time been centred around the tower and until the last 20 years there has been a constant fear of the tower falling. The shifting sub soil has also made its mark on some of the other buildings, most notably San Michele dei Scalzi. Another attraction not to be missed is the Museo delle Sinopie, containing a sketches from the frescoed cycle that decorated the walls of the Campo Santo cemetery and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in which exhibits of arabesque panels and Corinthian capitals reveal the influences of Rome and Islam on Pisan architects. The Museo Nazionale di San Matteo also featured here displays a range of Florentine art from the 12th through to the 17th centuries. Locality: The historic city centre of Pisa is concentrated on the north bank of the River Arno and is still surrounded by 12th-century walls. Rising 4 m. above sea level on the banks of the Arno river, on a fertile alluvial plain, this town is approximately 10 km. from the Tyrrhenian Sea. |
