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. If you like this video,
please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to Max Nomad for new travel videos published every day. I'm Max Nomad, and I will
talk to you again soon.
