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Stretching
Pisa
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 There
are at least 15 boulevards in Paris that are over
2 km long. Rue de Vaugirard, the longest in the
city, runs for an admirable 4,360 metres; Rue de
Rivoli for 3,070 and Boulevard Saint-Germaine some
3,150. Those who long to lose themselves in the
urban jungle, wandering through houses and roads,
up steps and down subways, can cover up to 35 kilometres
without ever having to go back on their steps.
 Pisa,
on the other hand, is annoyingly small, as if it
were built in miniature by people lacking in ambition.
If, for example, you started off from the Tower
itself (just on the edge of the old town) and went
down Viale XXIV Maggio, after little more than a
kilometre you'd be in a place called San Martino
Ulmiano, deep in undergrowth and surrounded by herds
of sheep. The last four to five hundred metres of
your walk bring you through blocks of flats, crumbling
buildings and corrugated iron huts without as much
as passing a shop or bar. If you like to wander
through city streets without ending up in the middle
of nowhere, your shoes covered in mud and surrounded
by a flock of geese, then Pisa's stubby streets
are not the place for you. In one way or another,
after about 40 minutes, you'll invariably end up
in one of the small villages just outside the city,
or in some dusty wasteland where the only way forward
is back.
Despair not, there is a way, just follow me . .
. Starting from the airport, go along Via dell'Aeroporto
as far as Piazza Giusti; turn left into Via Cappuccini
and then Via di Quarantola until you get to the
junction with Via Battisti. After about half a kilometre
you should reach Viale Bonaini. Go straight through
Piazza Guerrazzi and over Ponte della Vittoria.
Now take a sharp right into Viale delle Piagge and
walk as far as Piazza Ginori where you turn left
into Via San Michele degli Scalzi and then right,
after 200 metres, into Via Rosellini.
 Walk
as far as Via Cisanello and turn right. After a
while you should come across a certain Via W. Tobagi:
take it as far as the intersection with Via Valgimigli
and turn left. Turn into Via Francesco Flamini on
the right, cross Via Garibaldi and go down Via Galdi
which runs into Via Carlini. Turn left just after
Via Giuseppe Parini, then right into Via Settembrini
and left again (you should be in Via Quasimodo):
now take the left turn at Via Battelli and go straight
along Via Edmondo De Amicis.
Then follow your map along the following streets:
Via del Giardino, Via di Simone, Via Buonarroti,
Via San Zeno, Largo San Zeno, Via Firenze, Via Napoli,
Via di Gello, Via Lucchese, Via Rindi, Via Tino
da Camaino, Via Salvestroni and Viale XXIV Maggio.
And that brings you to the end of your walk. If
you've followed my directions you'll have wandered
through the city for hours on end, avoiding all
trace of the countryside. You'll also have covered
kilometres without touching the old town or even
glimpsing the leaning tower. Indeed you could have
been in any suburb of any big city, except Pisa,
of course.
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| by
MAURIZIO
SALABELLE |
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June
2001
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THE SURVIVOR'S 
