Famous for Faulty Architecture

  Pisa, Italy
Friday, September 28, 2007

We had heard that there wasn't all that much to see in Pisa besides the Leaning Tower, and since the trains in Italy are fairly expensive we decided to make the most of our trip from Florence up to Cinque Terra by stopping off for the day in Pisa to do some sightseeing. After only a little bit of pushing and arguing (positively polite by Italian standards!) we managed to lock our bags at the train station and headed off. The famous part of the town is about 1km from the train station, so we walked along through designer-store lined streets and past beautiful centuries-old government buildings and former palaces, some with the traces of painted frescoes still visible.

Slightly Leaning Also

Next thing you know, we turned a corner and there it was, in all it's leaning glory - the Tower itself! It really is VERY leany, the experts say it has been stabilized enough that you can climb up stairs to the top, but it continues to slip 1-2metres a year, and from some angles it looks wobblingly close to just toppling right over. We were a bit suprised to see that it is actually part of a big complex with a huge, ornate cathedral and a slightly leaning dome - in the photos we had seen, you only ever see the tower by itself, so we went for a walk around the whole complex and admired the complicated marble facades and columns, and of course the tower itself.

Just a Little Lean

It was packed with tourists, so we got right into the spirit and took some cheesy photos of us 'holding up the tower', along with about 50 other camera-toting tourists at the same time! It really was amazing actually being there, though, and our excitement was only slightly dampened (literally) by a torrential rainstorm that hit just as we were sitting down to our lunch of sandwiches. We tried waiting it out, but after 20 minutes of solid, bucketing rain, we bid the tower a fond farewell and headed for the safety and warmth of a local cafe to sit and sip caffe lattes until our train was due to leave.

Great Strength

All our best from Italy,

Dan and Gabrielle