The STEEMIT COUPLE finale: representing Steemit in Pisa on our Italy tour – visiting the Field of Miracles, posing at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and a THANK YOU to Steemit

This is the finale of our travel series in Italy. We have represented Steemit all the way through our trip to the magnificent cities of Florence and Siena. Now we will also take Steemit to Pisa, the city most famous for its Leaning Tower. As explained in part 1, part 2, and part 3, the trip was entirely financed from the proceedings from my first two philosophical ‘hits’ at Steemit.

After our magnificent day trip to Siena, a city that is considered as one of the most beautiful medieval cities in Europe, we now made our way through to Pisa!

Our last meal in Florence
On our last full day in Italy, we decided to have brunch in the Mercato Centrale. It has a food market on the ground floor and a food court that is a gastronome’s paradise on the first floor. The market is a wonderful place to get some fresh food. We walked around to see all the food that was offered and then went upstairs to order ourselves a nice panino, some freshly baked fries and a croquette with rice inside.

We came in at around 10:15 AM so it was quite quiet. After our meal, we went straight to the central station of Florence and took the train to Pisa.

Arrival at Pisa

The train ride to Pisa from Florence took us 1 hour and 10 minutes. Once we arrived at Pisa, it was an easy more-or-less straight walk to our guesthouse. We stayed at the Academy House Pisa Centrale, a guesthouse that is three minutes from the train station and that looks quite dodgy from the exterior. The location was excellent! However, the staff did not speak English and there was no fan or air conditioning which made the night very hot.

Galileo, the Leaning Tower, and the Field of Miracles
For me, Pisa has always stood for two things: one was Galileo Galilei, and the other was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Galileo was born in Pisa in 1564, and studied and taught at the University of Pisa. I became first familiar with Galileo’s work at the age of around 10 when I picked up a book on astronomy. Reading about his courage to pursue scientific truths in a time when the dead hand of the Church was all too prevalent filled me with admiration.

In my mind, the Leaning Tower and Galileo were always related. It is because of the famous but untrue story that one day he dropped down balls of the same material, but of different masses, from the Tower to demonstrate that the speed of a falling object is independent of its mass. Back in the day it was still commonly believed that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones in direct proportion to weight.

It was due to such stories that I have always wanted to visit the Leaning Tower. The walk from the station to our guesthouse and the Leaning Tower was more or less following one road.

Before we arrived at the Tower, we saw this beautiful small gothic styled church (Santa Maria di Pontenovo) next to the Arno river on the right side of the picture.

After walking another 10 minutes we then arrived at The Field of Miracles (Il Campo dei Miracoli). The Leaning Tower, the Duomo, the Baptistry, the Monumental Cemetery and several museums make up this Field of Miracles.

Charles Dickens has said of the field:

“… and from being clustered there, together, away from the ordinary transactions and details of the town, they have a singularly venerable and impressive character. It is the architectural essence of a rich old town, with all its common life and common habitations pressed out, and filtered away.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj9rvoA1N4M

The grass in between the buildings is nicely cut. It provides a perfect place for students and tourists to enjoy a lunch break. The square itself is situated next to the oldest early medieval city walls that were built in 1155 and are perfectly preserved.

Of course we also posed at the Leaning Tower.

We also visited the Sinopie Museum (Museo delle Sinopie) where you can find the ‘sinopias’, early graphic works that are put beneath the finished wall paintings. The collection of these ‘sinopias’ were discovered when a Second World War bombing raid set the Monumental Cemetary on fire. During the event, frescoes were removed from the Cemetary which led to the discovery of the ‘sinopias’ underneath. These graphic works of the early masters tell stories from the Old Testament.

With a ticket from the Sinopie Museum, we were also allowed to enter the Cathedral for free. The Cathedral is of Romanesque style with its first stone laid in 1093. Although not as grand and splendid as the ones in Florence and Pisa, it is still a magnificent sight.

Moving our way back through the commercial center
After our visit to the Cathedral, we walked back home passing the main shopping street. We saw some lovely squares and took a break to see a street artist entertaining a crowd. We also witnessed a demonstration of a group of Kurds against the Turkish genocide on the Kurdish people.

And we saw some post-modern art. Once we arrived home at our guesthouse, we were quite exhausted from our travels so we took a shower, packed our bags to fly back to the Netherlands, and fell asleep quite early. I don’t remember what time exactly.

We woke up at 4:00AM in order to catch our taxi to Pisa Airport and that is where our fantastic travels ended.

Reflections on our magnificent trip
We have had such wonderful experiences in Italy that it has become one of our most favorite travel destinations. The Italians we met during our trip were very hospitable. Anytime we entered a shop or a restaurant we were greeted with a welcoming “buongiorno” or “buonasera”. We also had the impression that Italians are passionate people who love to smile and enjoy your days. This is probably the Mediterranean hospitality that we don’t see often enough in the Netherlands.

We think that we have made a good decision to visit Florence, Siena and Pisa on the trip. Florence attracts by far the most tourists out of the three cities, but all of them are close enough to each other that it is almost a sin to visit only one of them when you have the chance to visit all three.

We feel so much culturally enriched. The medieval and renaissance buildings and art works are magnificent. The food is delicious. The views breath-taking. This could have been our best foreign trip so far, and that is coming from a couple that has traveled to France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Thailand, New Zealand, Cambodia, the USA...

Finally, we would also like to share some last words with the Steemit community. We understand that this trip was made possible only through the earnings of my ‘hits’ on my philosophical writings here. Therefore, we would like to THANK the community. We try to take nothing for granted, and we hope that you will follow more of our posts in the future.

With love,

The STEEMIT Couple