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From the Piazza dei Miracoli to the old city centre
While visiting Pisa, Piazza dei Miracoli is a destination that cannot be missed. It houses the most significant religious complex of the city composed of the Baptistry, the ome, the Leaning Tower and the Camposanto.
It is easily accessible walking down the Viale delle Cascine and then taking the right into Via C. Cammeo at the end of which the Baptistery in Romanesque style is located. It was built under the leadership of Nicola Pisano, who carried out the wonderful pulpit ornamented with the "Stories of Christ" inside it.
Behind the Baptistery, the Cathedral rises. Its façade shows an alternation of columns and pilasters that convey the harmony of the Romanesque architecture.
In the immediate surroundings, the Museo dell' Opera can be visited. It houses the reproductions, the models and the papers regarding the construction phases of this architectural complex.
Finally, in the Camposanto Monumentale, where the most illustrious men of Pisa were buried, numerous Etruscan and Medieval works are exposed and they are arranged in a sort of art gallery.
Leaving Piazza dei Miracoli and taking Via Cardinal Maffi, it is possible to see the Palazzo Arcivescovile. Taking the right into Via Carducci, one can reach the old city centre, namely the Piazza dei Cavalieri, with its homonymous Church and the Palazzo dedicated to St. Stefano, who fought against the Saracens and, therefore, he is remembered for this.
In the immediate surroundings, the Palazzo dell' Orologio, or the "Tower of Famine"", can be visited. It is called like this because the Count Ugolino died of starvation here at the end of the year 1200. he was a Pisan noblemen belonging to the Ghibellines, but he was shut up here because he plotted against his town and his party, since he wanted to establish a Guelf government.
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From Santa Maria della Spina to Santa Caterina
Starting from the station and crossing Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and walking down Via Francesco Crispi one can arrive near the Arno river.
Just along the bank of the river, there is the small Gothic church of Santa Maria della Spina. Its name derives from a medieval tradition according to which a thorn of Christ's crown was kept here.
After crossing the river and walking down the Lungarno Pacinotti, Borgo Stretto is on the left and, then, there is the church of San Michele in Borgo, with its façade being an example of union between the Romanesque and the Gothic styles.
After Via Oberdan and Via Carducci, one can arrive in the XIII-century Dominican church of Santa Caterina. Its façade, as well as the one of San Michele, reminds the overlapping of the epochs when the Romanesque style substituted the Gothic one.
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