We have known Marina di Pisa for a long time. During our summer holidays we would take the train with our cycles on board to Pisa Centrale station and then pedal the 13-odd kilometres to Marina di Pisa. Age has increased our affection for this place, redolent of history and inspiration, which, after some terrible years of decadence and neglect (like several English seaside resorts I know) is being revalued for the amiable resort it is.

One of Italy’s greatest poets, Gabriele D’Annunzio, wrote his finest poetry here, collected in ‘Alcyone’. My post at https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/superman-or-satanist/ describes this astounding person and includes my translation of his beautiful poem on the rain falling on the pine forests that form the background to Marina di Pisa.

D’Annunzio had an overwhelming love for Marina di Pisa. Equally in love with the town and its coastline were Eleonora Duse (who spent her holidays with D’Annunzio here in a villa by the sea),  another great poet, Dino Campana,  Sergei Rachmaninov, the painter Giuseppe Viviani and the nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo .

At that time, wild dunes of grey and brackish sand joined the pine forest. Then in the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century disaster struck. Poor management and corruption increased erosion to the extent that, like a sea vampire,  waves eventually devoured the lovely sandy beach, today largely replaced by pebbles deposited on the sea front to avoid further destruction.

(Marina di Pisa’s beach as it used to be)

Furthermore, the railway which used to run between Pisa and Marina di Pisa (it continued to Tirrenia and Livorno) was closed down in 1960.

Marina’s railway station is still there…

However, all is not lost. Thanks to a 6.5 million euro funding from the region, province and the municipality, work is underway to restore the formerly sandy beach. It’s a sophisticated project and undersea barriers will be used to prevent the sea from consuming the once-praised beach yet again.

Marina di Pisa’s sandy beach restoration project is part of its revitalization as is the new marina at the ‘Bocca D’Arno’ (mouth of the river Arno).

This new marina has, however, caused some distress among those persons used to a more traditional town.  With affection I remember the delightful times I spent with friends at the ‘retoni’ (big nets) fishing for whitebait. We used to have marvellous fry-ups and watch the sun go down on the Tyrhennian Sea by the Arno. To see those happy times read my post at:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/a-big-network-at-marina-di-pisa/

 

Houses and churches which were once neglected are now being restored and there are some spectacular examples of fin-de-siècle architecture equal to anything in Viareggio.

There are several excellent sea-food restaurants and if many of them are now closed at the end of the sea-bathing season there is one that always seems to be open: the ‘Pescotto’. We enjoyed an excellent fritto-misto there:

Afterwards we took a walk around the resort.

Returning home we couldn’t resist taking another look at that miraculous church marking the spot where Saint Peter landed to proselytise Italy and eventually be martyred, crucified upside down in Rome.

I have written extensively about this exquisite building at:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/saint-peters-landing-place-in-italy/

and

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/a-more-interesting-way-of-getting-to-pisa-airport/

For those of you familiar with the beautiful Italian language I cannot resist including a poem on Marina di Pisa by Gabriele D’Annunzio:

O Marina di Pisa, quando folgora
il solleone!
Le lodolette cantan su le pratora
di San Rossore
e le cicale cantano su i platani
d’Arno a tenzone.

Come l’Estate porta l’oro in bocca,
l’Arno porta il silenzio alla sua foce.
Tutto il mattino per la dolce landa
quinci è un cantare e quindi altro cantare;
tace l’acqua tra l’una e l’altra voce.

E l’Estate or si china da una banda
or dall’altra si piega ad ascoltare.
È lento il fiume, il naviglio è veloce.
La riva è pura come una ghirlanda.
Tu ridi tuttavia co’ raggi in bocca,
come l’Estate a me, come l’Estate!
Sopra di noi sono le vele bianche
sopra di noi le vele immacolate.
Il vento che le tocca
tocca anche le tue pàlpebre un po’ stanche,
tocca anche le tue vene delicate;
e un divino sopor ti persuade,
fresco ne’ cigli tuoi come rugiade
in erbe all’albeggiare.
S’inazzurra il tuo sangue come il mare.
L’anima tua di pace s’inghirlanda.
L’Arno porta il silenzio alla sua foce
come l’Estate porta l’oro in bocca.
Stormi d’augelli varcano la foce,
poi tutte l’ali bagnano nel mare!
Ogni passato mal nell’oblìo cade.
S’estingue ogni desìo vano e feroce.
Quel che ieri mi nocque, or non mi nuoce;
quello che mi toccò, più non mi tocca.
È paga nel mio cuore ogni dimanda,
come l’acqua tra l’una e l’altra voce.
Così discendo al mare;
così veleggio. E per la dolce landa
quinci è un cantare e quindi altro cantare.
Le lodolette cantan su le pratora
di San Rossore
e le cicale cantano su i platani
d’Arno a tenzone.

(Gabriele D’Annunzio, “La Tenzone” da Alcyone – Marina di Pisa 5 luglio 1899)