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Pisa: Historical Outline
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Pisa, in the past an Etruscan settlement and subsequently a Roman colony, and later still, the ancient and proud Maritime Republic, rises close to the Tyrrhenian Sea on the banks of the river Arno, that flows through it The Middle Ages gave it its period of maximum splendour: the numerous civilian and religious edifices, the squares, the typical narrow alleys running perpendicular to the Arno, testify, in the historic centre's forma ubis, to a remarkable economic and political stability.
Traces of the Roman and medieval settlements were completely lost, partly because of bombing during the Second World War, but there are still ample stretches of the town walls, built between 1154-1155 and the mid-fourteenth century.
In the XI century Pisa intensified trade in the Mediterranean, conquered Sardinia and the towns of Reggio Calabria, Palermo, Bona and Al-Mahdiya in Africa, and furthermore could boast of many victories against Muslim ships.
Oriented towards Ghibelline politics, Pisa was the only free Commune in all of Tuscany to openly support the Swabian sovereigns (Frederich I Barbarossa, Henry VI, Frederick II, Manfredi and Corradino) and were thus in contrast with the papacy, and excommunicated in 1241 for having captured and consigned to the Emperor Frederick II a few high-ranking priests on their way to Rome to take part in a council.
The gradual decline of the city was decreed by its rival Genoa with the defeat of Meloria in 1284 and subsequently also by Florence. The loss of Sardinia and predominance over the sea placed Pisa in a find of isolation from which it only emerged around 1500.
The climate, mild and temperate, because of the vicinity to the sea and the protection offered by the mountains behind Pisa, has given it a primary place in national and international tourism.
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As the fulcrum of an area astride the provinces of Lucca and Livorno, its territory is particularly suitable for farm-holidays, trekking, cycling, horse-riding, bird watching, golf, open-air and water sports, that can be practised on a fantastic coast with sand-beaches, perfectly equipped with bathing establishments, hotels and restaurants. In the Regional Park of Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli, extending for 23.000 hectares along the coast from Viareggio to Livorno, with tree groves and Mediterranean shrubs,, encounters with deer, boars and the over two-hundred varieties of migratory birds are frequent.
Pisa preserves, with the complex of Piazza del Duomo - cultural patrimony of all humanity - numerous masterpieces of civil and military architecture and of medieval history.
To these treasures can be added the Certosa of Pisa, at Calci (10 Km), and the Basilica of San Piero at Grado (5 Km), obligatory stops for lovers of Romanesque art.
Pisa's cultural and academic tradition boasts, besides the most ancient botanical garden in all of Europe, a prestigious atheneum flanked by the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari Sant'Anna and the Scuola Normale Superiore, unique in Italy and instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1813.
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A city of art and history, Pisa commemorates its traditions during the month of June with numerous folklore and religious events, among which we draw attention to the Luminaria, in occasion of the feast of the patron saint (16/17 June), a suggestive decoration of the banks of the Arno with wax candles, and the Palio di San Ranieri, a regatta with special boats through the historic parts of tawn.
On the last Sunday in June, at the end of a procession composed of over seven hundred actors in historic costumes, the two opposite banks of the Arno, organized in two opposing factions of six teams each, face each other, pushing a heavy cart, and thus inaugurate the Game of the Bridge, a re-evocation of ancient tournament game.
Source: APT Pisa
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