Pisa

Pisa, a town of North Italy, capital of the province of the same name, is situated on the Arno and on the Florence and Leghorn Railway, 6 miles from the sea, and 44 miles W. of Florence. The river is crossed by three stone bridges, and one railway bridge. The town has a citadel, and is surrounded by walls and ditches enclosing a circumference of 6 miles. It has handsome streets, good quays, and fine houses. The 12th-century Duomo is of white marble, and has a dome supported on seventy-four pillars, and contains good paintings, sculptures, and mosaics. The Baptistery has also a dome 190 feet high. The famous Leaning Tower is 179 feet high, and 13 feet out of the perpendicular. A fine view is obtainable from the top. The cemetery called Campo Santo is of interest, and there is a famous university. The chief productions are silk, woollens, cottons, worsted, soap, white-lead, vitriol, corn, and oil. The province, containing 1,180 square miles, is fertile, hilly in the centre and south-east, but occupied in the north-west by lakes and swamps. The city of Pisa was anciently one of the twelve cities of the Etrurian federation.