A vast baroque monastery and a natural history museum at the foot of Monte Pisano
At the foot of Monte Pisano, about ten kilometres from Pisa, the Certosa di Calci spreads out like a small town: a Carthusian monastery founded in 1366 and rebuilt in sumptuous baroque style in the eighteenth century, with a great cloister, a frescoed church and the monks' cells, each a small house with its own garden.
The monks left in 1972, and today the complex hosts two museums. The National Museum of the Charterhouse shows the monastic life, the guest quarters of the grand dukes and the pharmacy. The Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa has one of the most impressive galleries of cetacean skeletons in Europe, a long glass hall where whale skeletons seem to float against the olive groves.
Tip: the visit to the monastery is guided and lasts about an hour; plan half a day to see both museums.
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