The Pisa and Taj Mahal. Review on Italy, General

Pisa and the Taj

With all the excitement of a school kid on his first excursion, I decided to check out the Leaning Tower of Pisa for myself. Does it really deserve a place along with our very own Taj Mahal in the ‘Timeless Seven Wonders of the World?’ I asked myself as a stepped into the cab in front of my Hotel at Florence. It was a cold and cloudy morning in early February as the cab sped to Firenze Santa Maria Novella Stazione – the Central Rail Station at Firenze (the Italian name for Florence). The Duomo and the Uffizi Galleria at Florence really didn’t evoke much of an interest in me – you’ve got to have an unshaven beard and a lost look to admire these arty stuff!

I got down at the station, paid the cab in euro, as the driver tried to figure out the conversion to lire and walked up to the ticket counter.

‘The next train is a local, going to Pistoia; you have to get down at Pisa Central, okayee?’

the lady at the counter quizzed me.

‘Sure’

‘That will be seven euro and sixty four euro cents for a return ticket by second class’

I fished out the coins from my jacket and exchanged it for the ticket.

‘Gracie’ – I could figure that one – it was ‘thank you’. I returned the compliment and sauntered to the platform.

The stazione was busy, lot of students in their thick jackets and parkas, sipping hot café at the couple of brightly lit pizzerias nearby, waiting for their train. The ride from Firenze to Pisa Central would take an hour, I was told, as I settled in my seat in the train on platform #2.

A couple of important looking men in their suits and their over-coats occupied the seat opposite to me, settled in comfortably and pulled out their laptops. Bet they must be honing their skills on “Free Cell’ and ‘Minesweeper’ I said to myself as the train picked up speed towards Pisa Central.

An hour and a short nap later, the train drew into Pisa Central. I woke-up to see a big crowd of excited Japanese tourists jabbering excitedly to each other with strange looking cameras and maps. I cautiously looked at the hands of the guy next to me – a Japanese holding a device that looked like a CD player that had been run over by a road roller – it kept emitting strange lights at periodic intervals. I hastily stuffed my old Yashica into the deep recesses of my jacket (it shouldn’t develop an inferiority complex you see!) and headed out of the station to the taxi stand.

I positioned my hand in a slant and the taxi driver understood and smilingly shifted gears as I was on my last lap of this journey to see the Pisa.

I brushed aside the teeming crowd of sellers (gold, souvenirs, watches et al) and stepped into the precincts of the Pisa Cathedral. The slanting belfry (more popularly known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) stood there in imposing silence. Awesome and huge, literally defying gravity, well, one could go on.

Set in the premises of the church, it stood on a sprawling expanse of lush green lawn, well maintained and serene. There was quite a big crowd there and a lot of camera flashes were popping as they captured a slice of this history on silver halide. I walked upto the base of the tower and looked up, believe me, it really is frightening. The steel guy ropes that were supposedly installed last year have been removed and it’s just the tower – all by itself. Elsewhere in the world, a leaning tower could have had an enquiry Commission, a lot of mud slinging, some political mileage and a few axed heads; here, it just chose to merge seamlessly to the coveted list of the ‘Seven Wonders’.

Later, after a good hard look one last time at this monument, I headed into the nearest café for a steaming hot cuppa. I stirred the sugar in and mulled over the day; well spent no doubt, but more than anything else, I firmly believe, Taj Mahal is in good company indeed. Pisa - the essence of Italy.

© March 2002.