Pisa, a Tuscan day trip, annually receives flocks of millions of visitors to descend on the Leaning Tower and to view the neighboring architectural wonders, all propped upon the Campo dei Miracoli square. The city started as a seaside settlement circa 1000 B.C. to evolve into a naval trading port under the Romans, during the 2nd century B.C. By the turn of the 11th century, the city had ranked among the peninsula's influential maritime republics, preceded by Venice, Amalfi, and Genoa. Extensive trade with the Middle East helped to import advanced Arabic ideas, and the wars with the Saracens resulted in the offshore empire of Corsica, Sardegna, and the Balearics. Brimming with wealth in the late Middle Ages, the city received its monumental character then. In 1284, Pisa's fleet was destroyed by Genoa, and the city slowly started to slide down into disrepair. Florence took control in 1406. In spite of some minor rebellions, Florence stayed in charge until the Italian unification during the 1860s. The city’s main claim to glory since the decline of its naval power has been the University of Pisa, among Italy's top schools, and establishedin 1343. The site also gave birth to one of the greatest physicists and astronomers of the Western world, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).