The Piazza dei Cavalieri is Pisa's main square, and contains these historical buildings. The one with the clock at center, the aptly named Clock Palace, is by far the most interesting, but you'll have to suffer through a bit more history to get the full impact of the story. As mentioned earlier, Genoa and Pisa were bitter rivals for the lucrative sea trade. At the time, the Gherardesca family was dominant, sort of the Pisan Medicis. Again, as in Florence, there was plenty of rivalry among the leading families, and with the powerful Archbishop as well. I'll skip all the rebellions and civil wars, but ultimately Ugolini, the leader of the Gherardesca clan, is appointed to lead a naval expedition against the hated Genoans. Unfortunately, the Pisan fleet got totally destroyed by Genoa, destroying their source of wealth and leaving them vulnerable to takeover. The rival families and the archbishop decided that Ugolini intentionally lost the battle due to some secret pact with the Genoans, which may or may not have been true. Regardless, the archbishop had him arrested, and for punishment, had him, his two sons and two grandsons imprisoned in the Clock Palace. It was then boarded up, and they were left to starve to death. As if this were not grisly enough, Dante popularised this event in his Inferno, by adding the famous line that "In the end, hunger overcame grief". At that point Ugolini, who had been eating his arm, crossed over to cannibalism and ate his descendants to stay alive. Scientists continue to investigate their remains to determine the truth of this part of the story, but the Cannibal Count nickname has stuck.

To wrap up the history, defenseless Pisa was quickly annexed to Florence, and a big statue of Medici planted in the middle of the square. Medici also ripped down the old city hall and built a grand building for a new order of crusading knights, pictured here. The last crusades had ended long ago, but this new order was a chance for Medici to give out lots of titles and prizes to rich families craving the status of being a pretend crusading knight. And with that, Pisa fades into obscurity, and our visit draws to a close.