Francia And Quirinale Montecatini Terme

... on the "uphill" side as ballast.
This gives the tower a slight 'banana" shape.
An attempt was made in 1836 to dig out the foundation, yet lean worsened.
It was closed in 1990 to visitors as collapse was thought imminent. Tower then nearly 18'-6" off.
Stabilization work was begun in 2000 which brought the tower back toward plum by 11".
Re-opened to tourists in 2001 in groups of 30, attended by a guide only.

... 8230; and couldn’t find a park… jagged a disabled spot and thought we could always rip mick’s leg off if we got questioned.. Made a dash about 500metres up the road to see the leaning tower… it really is leaning!!… then quickly back to ensure the car was not towed away… back on the road heading north to Porotvenere..

... Pistoria.. Tried to find a shop open to buy beer (not stubbies) as cans are huge…and tissues for runny nose etc… seemed like an easy task but it is a very old town.. Very narrow streets.. A Sunday and nothing open… but we did see a bit of the town… some bits more than once as we went round and round and round… anyway found that there was a shop open in next town Monsummano… got supplies and then tried to find the B& ...

Cinque Terre is a place I have heard a lot about, but wasn't planning to see on this trip. There aren’t a lot of places to stay and I hadn’t done my research on which of the five towns would be the best to stay in. But thanks to some advice and a gentle nudge from some friends in Florence, I decided to spend two nights there and do "the hike". It was a good decision.

I stayed in a town called ...

... room with free breakfast (eggs!) and dinner (pasta or pizza, naturally) made for some serious socialization and some interesting folks.

We confirmed the best gelato in the world claim made by the Trinity Gelato shop... twice. Mascarpone and Chocolate being the ultimate flavours, we saw the David by Michealangelo and found it a unique experience as compared to everything we had seen up to that point. There was a fascinating photo exhibit set up temporarily at the ...

... so I'm actually pretty cool at night. Third, I have the corner of not only the room but the building that is closest to the source of the soothing dance music of 1950's Germany (they play some pretty awful stuff over there), and I have earplugs that could block out a Korn concert next door. I can withstand it. I even offered some of my earplugs to the folks, because I have many spares, but they denied. Oh well, I'll let you know if we actually do change rooms, but I doubt it will happen.

... fill out for the local police as residing study abroad students. After the meeting I, I finally got the chance to take pictures of the CAPA center. It's pretty sweet, and people live upstairs, too. Check out the classrooms and the stairway. It's gonna be rough. Then the staff member that gave my half of the program the orientation, Laura, gave us a walking tour of downtown. This tour made up a large portion of the pictures to follow, because my camera finally had batteries that ...

... inside the church because it was closed but the exterior was enough to look at. after that we wandered around town from piazza (plaza) to piazza, and saw another huge church. at one of the piazzas there was a giant open air market selling all kinds of things. that night we relaxed back at out hotel trying some of the local Tuscany wine, very good and very inexpensive. Sunday we went to the other big art museum in Florence ...

... in the center, and took a bit of a nap before dinner. Dinner was nice, but we did't realize the pasta was our main course. They bought out some garlic bread, salad and pasta. We all thought something else was coming bbut no, nothing else. When we realized that was it, we all took second helpings. Afterwards, we all went to the Red Garter, which is the same place I got drunk last year. I had an orgasm again, and went to do karaoke with Melissa ...

... when a pigeon lands on them, or who reluctantly hold out their hand full of seed until the pigeons swoop down, at which point the seeds going flying into the air and the person recoils with their hands flung over the head in protection. SO FUNNY!! I never fed them, but just watching the fun and laughs that the people around me were having was entertainment enough. Pigeon/People interaction will never get old for me. A little after 11:00, the square in front of the ...