Excursion to Pisa
May 30,2009

(timetable not yet defined)

 

The town of Pisa, famous in all the world for the Leaning Tower, has a millenary history that reached the greatest glory during the Maritime Republics times. It is a town full of artistic treasures, with its Roman and Gothic churches, squares and palaces in quarters defined by the "Lungarni" and the ancient streets. The University of Pisa, founded in 1343, is still one of the most renowned Italian universities, thanks to the high number of departments and to the Scuola Normale Superiore in Piazza dei Cavalieri. In Pisa they were born, among other famous people, Leonardo Pisano (known as Fibonacci) and Galileo Galilei.

In the morning

The walking tour will start from Ponte di Mezzo, from which there is a wonderful overview of the ancient buildings overlooking the Arno river; it will continues through Borgo Stretto, one of the main streets in the city center, flanked by buildings and arcades with colums surmounted by beautiful old capitals. The tour will then reach Piazza dei Cavalieri, that was the center of the town at the Maritime Republics epoch. During the Medicean age, the place was renovated to host the headquarters of the Knights of the Order of Santo Stefano. The most famous buildings in this place are the Palazzo dei Cavalieri, in which Napoleone founded the Scuola Normale Superiore in 1810, the Palazzo dell'Orologio and the Chiesa di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri. Walking along Via Santa Maria, one of the most characteristic streets with buildings from 16-18th centuries, and interesting "tower-houses" from 13th century, the tour will reach Piazza del Duomo, also known as Campo dei Miracoli. The place hosts on the wide green meadow the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Bell Tower and the Cemetery, which, though built at different times, form a wonderful architectural unit thanks to the chromatic and stylistic homogeneity.

Free time for lunch

In the afternoon

Entrance to the Leaning tower, undisputed symbol of the town and one of the most famous towers in the world for the elegance of the white marble and its static singularity. Inside the tower, in the cylindrical-shaped stairwell, a spiral staircase of 294 steps brings to the top of the tower (54 m), where Galileo made his experiments on gravity. The life and studies of the scientist will be presented at the exhibition: "The telescope and the Brush - New science and new art in the Age of Galileo." The exhibition aims to document the close relationship between the new emerging Galilean science and the figurative arts in the seventeenth century with paintings, sculptures, books, engravings and scientific instruments, from public and private collections from Italy and abroad,. Divided in five thematic and chrononogical sections , the exhibition shows the works with the support of multimedia and interactive technologies, describing for the first time a wonderful journey through the science and the arts.

Place and time:

FIRENZE   meeting point not yet defined.
Departure at 8.30. Back at 19,00