There are at least 15 boulevards in Paris that are over 2 km long. Rue de Vaugirard, the longest in the city, runs for an admirable 4,360 metres; Rue de Rivoli for 3,070 and Boulevard Saint-Germaine some 3,150. Those who long to lose themselves in the urban jungle, wandering through houses and roads, up steps and down subways, can cover up to 35 kilometres without ever having to go back on their steps.
Pisa, on the other hand, is annoyingly small, as if it were built in miniature by people lacking in ambition. If, for example, you started off from the Tower itself (just on the edge of the old town) and went down Viale XXIV Maggio, after little more than a kilometre you'd be in a place called San Martino Ulmiano, deep in undergrowth and surrounded by herds of sheep. The last four to five hundred metres of your walk bring you through blocks of flats, crumbling buildings and corrugated iron huts without as much as passing a shop or bar. If you like to wander through city streets without ending up in the middle of nowhere, your shoes covered in mud and surrounded by a flock of geese, then Pisa's stubby streets are not the place for you. In one way or another, after about 40 minutes, you'll invariably end up in one of the small villages just outside the city, or in some dusty wasteland where the only way forward is back.
Despair not, there is a way, just follow me . . . Starting from the airport, go along Via dell'Aeroporto as far as Piazza Giusti; turn left into Via Cappuccini and then Via di Quarantola until you get to the junction with Via Battisti. After about half a kilometre you should reach Viale Bonaini. Go straight through Piazza Guerrazzi and over Ponte della Vittoria. Now take a sharp right into Viale delle Piagge and walk as far as Piazza Ginori where you turn left into Via San Michele degli Scalzi and then right, after 200 metres, into Via Rosellini.
Walk as far as Via Cisanello and turn right. After a while you should come across a certain Via W. Tobagi: take it as far as the intersection with Via Valgimigli and turn left. Turn into Via Francesco Flamini on the right, cross Via Garibaldi and go down Via Galdi which runs into Via Carlini. Turn left just after Via Giuseppe Parini, then right into Via Settembrini and left again (you should be in Via Quasimodo): now take the left turn at Via Battelli and go straight along Via Edmondo De Amicis.
Then follow your map along the following streets: Via del Giardino, Via di Simone, Via Buonarroti, Via San Zeno, Largo San Zeno, Via Firenze, Via Napoli, Via di Gello, Via Lucchese, Via Rindi, Via Tino da Camaino, Via Salvestroni and Viale XXIV Maggio.
And that brings you to the end of your walk. If you've followed my directions you'll have wandered through the city for hours on end, avoiding all trace of the countryside. You'll also have covered kilometres without touching the old town or even glimpsing the leaning tower. Indeed you could have been in any suburb of any big city, except Pisa, of course.