#pisa Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

June 27, 2026June 27, 2026

Pisa Museums

Right around the famous tower there are a number of museums containing history of the importance of this city to the main city of Firenze. it’s good for you to take some time and to look around these museums and get a feeling of the history and the importance of this city and area to the economy of the northern part of Italy.

Sinopie museum Pisa Museums — Screenshot

Look at the concept Pisa Museums — You can make out the general concept and then look at the reproduction picture below

Huge frescoes Bill Smale — These frescoes are really huge

Incredible artwork Bill Smale — There is some incredible artwork to be discovered here

Part of the Camposanto — These frescoes were part of the Camposanto

Camposanto courtyard — a reproduction of one of the frescoes showing the courtyard in the Camposanto

Artistic license Bill Smale — Just like with books like the Bible what you see is an original here and then if you look down below at the reproduction you see they have taken off this fellow’s beard. This is artistic license which was so prevalent long ago as it is today

The whole complex — The shows the whole complex

Baptistry

Cathedral

Burial site — This is a huge building which is actually a burial site for famous people

God holding up the universe — What do you see here is God up above, behind the whole circle holding up the universe

Well preserved fresco — A well preserved fresco

Fibonacci — Any computer scientist knows this guy

Artifact museum

Incredible artwork in the hymnal — The artwork in this hymnal is incredible

June 25, 2026June 25, 2026

Walking around Pisa

I stayed near the train station so I got quite a bit of a distance away but had a lot of fun Walking around Pisa And seeing all the different sites you normally would not see if you were living close to the center. This is very much our living and working city, people enjoying their life and also many working in the tourist industry. So take your chance to walk around the city and see what people are doing.

The cathedral complex Walking around Pisa — We all talk about the tower but there is so much more since the tower was built as a compliment to the cathedral which sits in the middle of the complex

Baptistery Walking around Pisa — closest is the Baptist tree the next is a cathedral and then you can see the tower in the background

Working on the cathedral Bill Smale — The cathedral in front of the tower

Beautiful baptistery Bill Smale — Baptistery itself is quite a work of art

Local marble Bill Smale — I’m sure this is all sourced from local marble since you can see the marble Quarries in the mountains as you come into the city

Marble quarries — in the distance you see the marble quarries

The statue which represents the folkloric tradition of Romulus and Remus who were raised by a wolf. And you all know that Rome was named after Romulus

Have a drink Bill Smale — It’s a good time to sit and relax and to have a Campari spritz

Flowering trees — The trees along the pathway are flowering. I’m sure they were planted here to help with the heat

Station close to the tower — This is the station before the central station and The closest one to the tower complex

I was amazed to see the southbound train leaning to the left which I have seen at no other train station in Italy. Was this on purpose to support the atmosphere of the leaning tower?

Like In Firenze Horse drawn carriages are provided for the tourist to go around

Red Fiat — I was a little bit slow to get the phone out of my pocket and catch the photo of the old red Fiat which is now turning the corner. But I realized this is a good shot of people just hanging around and enjoy enjoying the city

Small utility vehicle — Here is one of the cute three Wheel utility vehicles, just the right size to get around the narrow streets

Outside artwork — But when you get Close Up you can see the artwork on the outside needs some renovation

Guy on a pillar — I don’t know how this guy got up there and I also don’t know how he’s going to get down.

Cosmo Medici statue — A statue dedicated to Cosmo Medici

Another photo — Here’s another one down a narrow street

And in a very busy area you have a Garibaldi statue

Electric car — If it’s an electric car to be had this is the one I want

The graffiti underneath the train tracks which is extremely well organized and painted

June 20, 2026June 20, 2026

Torre di Pisa

better known as the “leaning tower of Pisa“, when I was a kid we used to know The Torre di Pisa as “the leaning tower of pizza pie“. It is still leaning and it is leaning more than I ever imagined. It’s a very interesting place to visit and in my last 16 years coming to Italy many times I avoided it because I knew it would be a tourist nightmare. But this season it seems the amount of tourists is down quite a bit and I was urged by a friend to make the trip so, why not? One thing you should know is there are marble quarries nearby so it was easy to source marble for these structures. This is actually a whole complex with a cathedral, a supporting building and a graveyard for famous people which is the most extravagant graveyard I have ever seen. Here you will see just the photos related to the tower but you can see the other posts in succession or by doing a search by city name, pulling down the menu and selecting the search option.

The ticket Torre di Pisa — This is the ticket to see everything including going up to the top of the tower which is something you should do. I went in the afternoon but it is open very late until 10:30 PM. It was not crowded but the next day I noticed that the noon time reserved people were making quite a bit longer line

The complex Bill Smale — Proof I was there

Beautiful architecture Bill Smale — The architecture is really beautiful

Leaning pillar Bill Smale — I noticed this pillar was somewhat separated from its base in contrast with the other pillars. I don’t know if that’s because of the tower leaning away from this pillar

Marble stairs — The marble floors have been walked on by millions of people so they can be a little bit slippery. You need to be careful when walking up the stairs

Halfway up the tower — I’ll at the top you get some beautiful views

Cathedral renovations — You can see they are working on the cathedral

Brown administrative building — The Brown buildings are administrative offices and a place to keep your luggage which you need to do if you are coming up the tower. Anyway it’s better not even to have a backpack or bag with you because the steps can be a little bit challenging. You need both hands for safety.

Ticketoffice and museum — This is looking down on the museum and in the shady area you can see where the restaurants start. You will go down a gauntlet of people calling you into their restaurants which I find very irritating so I always walk around a city and look for a quiet restaurant out of the way where you see only Italian people eating. My experience with that has been very good

Restaurant road — Here you can see the restaurant road very clearly

You can tell it is leaning — I was trying to get as level as I could to show you that the tower is really leaning and interesting to walk around because you wind up going uphill and downhill into the left to the right

Narrow steps — I should add that the upper part of the staircase is extremely narrow so it’s best to go when it’s not crowded because it’s a little bit difficult to get the last third of the way up to the top

Keep it from falling down — I did my part to keep it from falling down

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