In June 2020, I decided to travel to Pisa
in Italy, immediately after the country
had reopened its borders.
In this video, I want to show you what travel
in Italy is like now and share my top seven things
to do in Pisa in the new normal.
Good morning!
I am super excited today because we're going to Pisa
to see one of the most famous monuments in the world.
Obviously, I'm talking about the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We're here in Florence in the central station.
I'm gonna catch a train now.
(upbeat music)
And here we are.
This is the world famous town of Pisa.
All right, I just bought a bus ticket,
and now let's head for the Piazza dei Miracoli,
the Miracle Square, where we can find the Leaning Tower
and the other showstopper sights of Pisa.
(soft music)
And there it is.
We can already see it. (jaunty Italian music)
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one
of the most famous buildings in the world.
Its construction was begun in 1173, by Bonanno Pisano.
Without the architect realizing that a mixture
of sand and clay under the Piazza dei Miracoli
was making the ground extremely unstable.
The tower already started to lean during its construction,
and reached its maximum lean of 5.5 degrees in 1990,
getting extremely close to collapse.
Thanks to patient remedial work
that took more than a decade,
the tower was stabilized and is now open for visitors again.
And the number one tourist pose here,
of course, is holding up the Leaning Tower.
So we're gonna make a quick stop at the tourist office
to ask how we could get up on that beautiful tower.
That's always a good idea,
because during the new normal,
you never actually know if something's gonna be open or not.
It's always best to look it up,
either online or even better, go to tourist information.
Usually there would be probably a thousand people
waiting here in line.
And here with the new normal, there's absolutely no one,
and I will just walk straight into the ticket office.
After buying my tickets, I walked over to the tower.
To help everyone keep a safe distance,
an employee handed out little devices
that start to beep if you get too close to someone.
So this is what the tower looks like from the inside.
I was rewarded for the steep climb up.
The views from the top of the tower
were absolutely stunning.
You can see the original purpose of the tower.
Bells, it's a bell tower, campanile,
as they say in Italian.
After climbing back down,
I walked over to the second main sight
on the Piazza dei Miracoli.
The construction of the Duomo di Pisa was began in 1063,
under the architect Buscheto,
and its architecture shows signs
of Byzantine and Moorish influence,
which points to Pisa's international ties
as a former sea power.
Some of the most important artwork inside the cathedral
is the mosaic of Christ in the apse,
the pulpit by Pisano and the golden ceiling.
The cathedral also contains the tomb of St. Rainerius,
the patron saint of Pisa and of all travelers.
(gentle music)
I continued to the third major sight of Pisa,
the oldest parts of the Battistero, baptistry in English,
date from 1152.
But the building was remodeled and continued
by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano more than a century later
and only completed in the 14th century.
One of the best things you can do here is
to climb to the upper gallery,
to listen to the remarkable acoustics of the double dome
that are frequently demonstrated by the custodians.
After leaving the Battistero,
I walked over to the next religious site
on the Piazza dei Miracoli.
(gentle music)
We're now in the Campo Santo,
which is a cloistered courtyard where wealthy people
from Pisa were once buried.
The Campo Santo is said to have been built
around a shipload of sacred soil from Calvary,
brought back to Pisa from the Third Crusade.
It was used as a cemetery for several centuries,
and also contains a collection
of ancient Roman sarcophagi and sculptures.
And there's some really beautiful frescoes on the wall.
Unfortunately though, when the Allies conquered Italy,
they destroyed a big part of it.
One of them, though, is still here,
and it's a really impressive one.
The restored frescoes in the Campo Santo by Buffalmacco
are impressive works of art,
and give a good impression of the medieval worldview.
Some of the most striking frescoes here
are "The Last Judgment", "Hell", and the "Triumph of Death".
(jaunty Italian music)
All right, so now we'll take the bus
to the best gelateria, which means ice cream shop,
in the city.
I'm really excited.
Let's see if it's really as good as everyone says.
By the way, if you want to use public transportation,
usually Google Maps works extremely well,
so that's what I've been relying on and it seems to work.
And here we are next to the Arno River
in the center of Pisa, and it's so beautiful.
Look at this.
It's stunning.
And here we are, De'Coltelli, best ice cream in town.
It looks really unassuming from the outside.
Let's see what it offers on the inside.
All right, we've got it.
This is macadamia nut and some other delicious flavors.
Wow, I've tried it and it is really special.
So nice.
So here, for example, this one has capers and pistachio.
Really good.
So yeah, I highly recommend this gelateria
if you're in Pisa.
(upbeat music)
So now let's walk over to one of the best museums
that they have here in Pisa. It's called Palazzo Blu.
As you can easily see when you look
at the wall behind me, I'm at the Palazzo Blu,
which is an art museum that has art from the 14th
until the 20th century, mostly.
It also has an archeological area in the basement.
So it sounds like a cool combination.
Let's go in and see what it's like.
Okay, now, this museum is really taking the safety measures
to another level.
I have, as you can see, gloves.
And I've got, of course, the mask.
And then I also have to package everything
into plastic bags.
This is my camera bag.
This is my regular backpack, which barely fit.
The Palazzo Blu houses an art collection
of mostly Pisan works from the 14th to the 20th century
and offers varying temporary exhibitions.
When I was there, the museum featured an exhibition
about the '60s in Pisa.
My favorite part of the museum, however,
where the aristocratic apartments on the first floor
that are furnished exactly as they were in the 19th century.
(gentle music)
(singing in foreign language)
And we're walking through the rain.
I hope you're a little bit luckier
when you visit Pisa, but a little bit of rain
in the evening now, doesn't hurt too much.
And now I'm in front of a completely different work of art.
This is called Tuttomondo by Keith Haring.
And it was the last big wall mural
that the artist painted here on the facade
of a Pisan church.
Keith Haring had the philosophy of turning common,
boring, maybe sometimes even depressing spaces
into festive, colorful works of art.
And I think he succeeded marvelously here
with the facade of this church.
I walked over to the bar, Il Gufo,
to meet up with a new friend.
(gentle music)
It's about time for the aperitif.
I'm here in the bar called Il Gufo, which means the owl,
right? - Yeah.
- Oh okay, it means the owl.
Met up here with Sabrina from couchsurfing,
and I just met her. - Hello.
- And look at the drinks.
They're so amazing.
This is a spritz aperol.
But the special thing is the decoration.
It's so fancy.
And also Sabrina's prosecco.
- I have a yellow rose. - It's amazing.
It's so pretty.
Wow.
Now, this is the aperitivo.
(upbeat music)
And of course, since we're in Italy,
I got some nice pasta now
before I'll take my train back to Florence.
It looks amazing.
It has 'nduja, which is a spicy sausage,
and of course, some Italian spices.
It looks really, really good.
So those are my recommendations for Pisa.
What are yours?
If you're from there or if you've been there before,
please make sure to leave your tips and advice
in the comment box below this video.
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