Skippable Pisa

November 5, 2022

Pisa, Italy

If you’ve never been to Pisa, you should probably go and see the Tower. It’s beautiful and amazing. We were lucky enough to see it on a previous trip. But I’m not sure I would advise a return trip.

So why did we return? First, we had originally planned to go to Cinque Terre instead, but that plan didn’t work out, so we filled the two-day space, with Pisa. Second, I thought there would be other things to see in Pisa. There are “other things” there, but they are not worth a trip. After the wonderful, beautiful, impressive places we have visited all over Tuscany, Pisa isn’t much. And then there was our hotel. . . .

Rick Steves recommended the hotel, though with a mild caveat. Too mild. It didn’t set off any alarms for me. I liked that the hotel was near the Pisa Centrale train station. It would make our coming and going and a possible day trip to Cinque Terre much easier. I looked up the hotel on TripAdvisor and Booking.com and the hotel had very good reviews. SO it seemed like a good idea to avoid the very touristy area near the Tower.

The hotel was a 10-15 minute walk from the station. I was totally unprepared to find ourselves in such a sketchy neighborhood. I felt really uncomfortable walking there. The hotel, at least, was a tidy, well-kept oasis of pleasantness in a sea of urban blight. A lot of effort had gone into the decoration of the lobby, but a TV was always on in the sitting area, and we were received by an unfriendly receptionist. We were told, at 10:30, that check-in was at 2:00.  Fair enough. Technically correct. But most places will make an effort to get your room ready earlier, or your room will be ready whenever you arrive and they will let you have it.  That was clearly not going to happen here, though we were allowed to leave our bags. A policy is a policy, I get that. But the difference between acceptable and great is making your guests feel like you are glad they are there and being willing to do a little bit extra sometimes.

We  came back at 2:30. (I will fill you in on how we spent the intervening time later.). A different unfriendly receptionist was there. We went to our room. It was pretty basic. It was decent enough, but a little tired. There was no information in the room about breakfast hours or the internet password, or anything else, and the receptionist had not mentioned any of this. It turned out that we had not booked the breakfast plan, but it was available for 30 euros. Umm, no thank you. The internet was a hotspot with a generic name - it didn’t seem to be a hotspot that was unique to the hotel.There was no password. Okaaaay, that’s a little too basic. I could go on, but I will just leave it at this: the vibe was bordering on hostile, and there were some things in the room that should have been maintained (like the toilet seat being very loose).

Long story short: we decided to stay here one night only, and go back to Rome a day early. I felt very relieved once this decision had been made. 

So, now I will tell you how we spent the time between 10:30 and 2:30 and walked 17,000 steps.We followed Rick Steves’ self-guided Pisa Walk. We stopped for a pastry and coffee. We stopped for gelato. We tried unsuccessfully to find a taxi back to the hotel, and we walked all the way back. Other than the Tower and the Field of Miracles at the end, the walk was underwhelming. We have been spoiled by the fabulousness of Lucca and Volterra and Montalcino and Siena and Florence. I’m sure that is a contributing factor. But Pisa just seemed like a one-trick pony. The area near the Tower was really touristy, and the area on our side of the river was just a workaday gritty city.

So here were the stops on our walk:

• A piazza with another statue of Vittorio Emmanuele II
• A pedestrianized shopping street
• An unremarkable church that was being restored and was completely covered by some kind of fabric that made the church impossible to see
• A bridge over the Arno
• Another statue of Garibaldi
• Another pedestrianized shopping street
• A small farmer’s market
• A piazza that had some things built by the Medicis and a statue of Cosimo I
• Another pedestrianized street, with a lot of outdoor cafes and  a lot of souvenir shops - and a lot of tourists
• Ta da! The Tower and the Field of Miracles (which includes a huge, striking cathedral, a baptistery, and some lesser sites)

We walked all the way back because we couldn’t find a taxi. Actually we found some empty taxis at a taxi stand, but we couldn’t find the drivers. We found a taxi with a driver, but he waved us away. We found a couple of additional taxis that drove right by us while we were waiting at the taxi stand. So we gave up and walked all the way back. Sometimes, when you don’t understand the culture and the rules, things don’t work out.

Victor Emmanuel II

View of the Arno from the bridge

Cosimo I in front of a palace he built in Pisa

A church Cosimo built

Hooray for purple vegetables

The Tower looks small in this photo because the cathedral in the background is so massive. The Towere is actually quite tall and very lovely.

The Cathedral and the Baptistery

We took a different route back and discovered an old, old church with this interesting plaque on the front:

It was unseasonably warm and sunny, and the walk back was pleasant even though I was starting to feel like my ankle was broken. Ken’s test for whether something is broken: If you can walk on it, it’s not broken.

I liked this riverfront building

After a rest period at the hotel, we decided to go back to the first pedestrian area for dinner. It had been very quiet there when we came back from our walk, but now it was bustling with the passegiata, the evening stroll. We only found a few hole-in-the-wall pizza places on the main shopping street, but then we turned down an alley and, lo and behold, a lovely little wine bar beckoned. We had wine, and shared a cheese board, and one large crostini. Perfect!