Category Archives: Pisa

Pisa Mover or Pismover

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Last year, on the 18th March, the Pisa Mover, a cable-rail shuttle service connecting Pisa central station with Pisa airport and replacing the former conventional electric rail service, was inaugurated. It cost almost 72 million euros. Of this amount public finance contributed 21 million.

As with most new transportation systems there have been both praises and complaints regarding the new service.

First the complaints:

  1. It’s expensive! A ticket costs Euros 2.70 to travel just over a mile. To compare prices and distance: a ticket from Bagni di Lucca to Pisa Central station covers a distance of 22 miles and costs Euros 5.60 This means that if the Pisa mover ticket cost were applied to the rail journey from Bagni di Lucca to Pisa central that ticket would cost almost 60 Euros!

Why is the ticket from Pisa central station to the airport so expensive? The answer is obvious: the ticket price has to cover the cost of financing the project. Whether the number of passengers using the Pisa mover will be able to recoup the cost even at this price is a moot point. It’s been estimated that ten million passengers annually must use the system for financial solvency but the current number is rarely above eight million.

  1. Walking distance to and from the interchanges at Pisa central and Pisa airport is longer creating possible difficulties for less able passengers. It’s a far cry from the formerly quick interchange to Florence or Rome trains from Pisa Central station.
  2. The system wasn’t really necessary. There was a previous rail service and when that was removed the temporary shuttle bus cost Euros 1.20 – less than half the present amount – and continued all the way to the famous leaning tower!
  3. Since the new cable-train system is incompatible with conventional rail systems all passengers must change trains and there can be no expansion of the Pisa mover for direct services to Florence and Rome from the airport.
  4. The Pisa mover is actually slower than any of the old systems, taking 8 minutes for the transit. The old conventional train system took 5 minutes and the shuttle bus 6 minutes…
  5. It’s not possible to buy on-line direct tickets to the airport from Bagni di Lucca. One needs to have some convenient cash to purchase an extra ticket at Pisa central station and, again, wages have to be paid for special assistants there to help passengers purchase tickets because of somewhat confusing auto-ticket dispensers.
  6. There are fewer seats on the new trains. Thankfully it’s a short journey.
  7. There was a corruption scandal and criminal investigation into the Pisamover construction company which was subsequently disestablished.

Second, the praises.

  1. The Pisa mover has a frequency of 12 new trains per hour instead of the old trains, which were 2 per hour and the shuttle bus which was 7 journeys per hour. However, one must remember that the old trains had greater passenger carrying capacity.
  2. There is an intermediate stop at Via di Goletta Navicelli for the additional car park.
  3. The Pisa mover is of interest to railway anoraks because of the cable transportation system involved. They can have great fun in taking photos and writing down rolling stock numbers.
  4. Can’t think of any other.

So there you have it. At least with the Pisa Mover I haven’t yet come across the chaos which ensues when London’s Piccadilly line has to cater for both rush-hour commuters and Heathrow airport passengers.

 

Escher at Pisa

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I first came across Maurits Cornelis Escher’s work at university where this essentially austere and highly logical artist inspired that otherwise quite illogical art movement, psychedelia. But then Escher is the artist of the impossibly possible!

 

 

 

In 2015 we visited an Escher exhibition held at my old school’s picture gallery in Dulwich, London. (https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/12/20/extraordinary-escher /). My post on it describes many of the features that contribute to Escher’s unique qualities including tessellation and Penrose-like optical illusions.

 

 

 

Pisa’s enterprising Palazzo Blu is currently hosting an exhibition dedicated to Escher until the 11th of February. (It’s been specially extended).  We visited it a couple of days ago and, despite the fact that both of us thought we were pretty familiar with the artist’s work, we found many new insights.

The artist’s evolution is well-shown in all its facets and is introduced by an original entrance into one of his ‘vault’ designs:

 

 

 

There were many works that I’d never seen before: for example this intimate portrait of Jetta, the artist’s Swiss wife:

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Fascinating were the comparisons made between some of Escher’s arabesques and geometrical forms and Pisa’s own examples of Romanesque art:

 

 

 

Also essential to the understanding of the artist’s sources of inspiration were the Piranesi engravings displayed:

 

 

 

Escher’s sensitivity to nature was wonderfully shown. (See the Koi carp?)

 

 

 

For me the highlights were the delightful village scenes in Tuscany (with brilliant evocations of San Gimignano) through Corsica – including Bonifacio and Corte which we visited in 2012 – the Amalfi coast and the wilder parts of Abruzzi and Calabria. Escher was fascinated by the interlocking village houses, so like Lego pieces, and the unbelievably precipitous slopes on which they were situated.

 

 

 

The artist incorporated these houses in his astonishing four-metre long ‘metamorphosis’, also on show, and which ends where it begins. Here is a detail:

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The cat made several appearances in the exhibition. There was this feline in one of the Italian engravings:

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This cat had a whole drawing dedicated to him:

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A baroque painting alongside showed two cats:

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and the interesting film  introduction to the exhibition displayed the curator’s cat ‘Misty’ sleeping on his desk. (Misty was acknowledged as a contributor. )

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It’s true to say that some of the Palazzo Blu exhibitions are now of a standard to bear comparison with those at Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi exhibitions and in some cases even surpass them.

Here are some links to past Palazzo Blu exhibitions we visited:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/picasso-and-modigliani-two-unmissable-exhibitions-near-lucca/     (Amedeo Modigliani)

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/short-legs-can-can-make-a-fine-artist/       (Toulouse-Lautrec)

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/italian-blue-skies-and-blue-palaces/        (Dali)