gva. news Summer-2016 No 65
Highlight The city of Pisa is one of Italy’s most important cultural centres. Its many historical treasures include the Piazza dei Miracoli, with its cathedral and world-famous bell tower, better known as the Leaning Tower. These architectural gems are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as are many towns in Tuscany. In fact, Pisa airport is the ideal starting point for
Geneva to the Leaning Tower – a 70-minute hop !
pro visiting the province, for example towns like Sienna or San Gimignano, its Chianti region and its superb landscapes of olive groves. Not to mention the wonderful cuisine, to be tasted without delay! On 1 February 2016, easyJet started flying direct between Genève Aéroport and Pisa. The schedule of three weekly flights – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – makes it easy to plan a four-day weekend, leaving early on Friday morning and coming home Monday evening. With the Leaning Tower less than 4 km from the runway, and beautiful Lucca and Florence a 15- and 45-minute drive away respectively, Pisa is now the gateway for all Genève Aéroport passengers who have fallen under Tuscany’s spell. A Tuscan municipality with a population of roughly 90,000, Pisa is bisected by the Arno River. Until the fourteenth century, it was one of the Maritime Republics, along with Amalfi, Venice and Genoa, and one of the peninsula’s most dynamic cities. Like Venice and Genoa, it helped embark soldiers for the Holy Land. The especially pious Pisan sailors returning from Palestine decided to bring back a bit of earth walked on by Christ. That earth, deposited in a clearly delimited rectangle, soon acquired a reputation for miracles. It would become the famous piazza that is instantly recognizable today thanks to its Leaning Tower and other buildings.
One the city’s most important monuments, located on the famed World Heritage Site the Square of Miracles (today known as the Piazza Duomo), the Romanesque marble Cathedral was built between 1064 and 1118; it has bronze doors cast by Bonanno Pisano and holds Giovanni Pisano’s pulpit. The world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa is in fact the cathedral bell tower. The twelfth-century Tower took 176 years to build and is 55 metres high. It started to tilt right after being finished, like most of the buildings from that period, because of the particularly loose soil. Before being consolidated in 1990, the Tower had an inclination of 10 degrees. Today it inclines at an angle of 3.99 degrees, or 5 metres from the perpendicular. It has recently been further consolidated, and should remain standing for at least another two centuries. Next to the Tower, the Baroque facades of Pisa’s typically pink- and yellow-ochre, green-shuttered houses rise above cheerful trattorie and gelaterie. Gates and high walls hide what one imagines are secret gardens, watched over by tall cypresses. Beyond lies all of Tuscany, a promise waiting to be kept, time and again… www.italia.it www.easyjet.com