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Heading south from the catherdral towards the river you pass through the Orto Botanico, the oldest university botanical gardens in the world and created in 1543. Continuing south passing the Natural History museum along the curving road of Via Santa Maria you meet the second of Pisa's leaning towers, the campanile ( bell tower ) of San Nicola. This buildsing is unusual in its design as it begins as a cylindrical structure that changes to an octagonal structure and finishes off on the top in a hexagonal shape. Alongside San Nicola, facing the Arno, is the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale or National Museum of the Royal Palace. The museum is full of paintings, sculptures and furniture belonging to the families of Medici, Lorraine and Savoy who at some time occupied the house. When you are tired of admiring yet more paintings and sculpture step out onto the balcony and enjoy the view of one of Italy's important rivers. Further along the Arno is the huge Arsenale that houses the sixteen well preserved ships uncovered during an excavation including a completely intact Roman warship. It is strange to think that after five centuries these ships have found their way back to the building that was originally built to house them. Beside the arsenal is the Torre Guelfa of the Fortezza Vecchia or the tower of the old fort. This ancient fortress was built in the thirteenth century to protect the harbour during its period as a maritime power. Piazza dei Cavalieri was the central civic square of medieval Pisa. Its wonderful Palazzo dei Cavalieri is crowned with busts of the Medici. On the opposite side of the square is the Palazzo dell'Orologio (Clock building) where the military leader Ugolino della Gherardesca was starved to death with the male members of his family in 1208, an event that was recorded in both Dante's Inferno and Shelley's Tower of Famine . |