Pisa

A city of western Italy on the Arno River near the Tyrrhenian Sea. An important Etruscan town, it developed into a powerful maritime republic in the 9th to 11th centuries but was crushed by Genoa in 1284. Florence controlled the city from 1406 to 1509. The campanile of its cathedral, built 1174-c. 1350, is the famed Leaning Tower of Pisa. Population: 87,200.