I've been told I'm lean, but this is ridiculous!

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Trip Start Sep 15, 2006 Previous
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  Pisa, Italy
Monday, December 25, 2006

Pisa went by in a flash, perhaps because we did it in just a few hours on the way to the airport.  Both of the guides we had said that there really wasn't a lot in Pisa besides the famous Tower and the other buildings on the Campo, so we knew not to allot too much time for it, especially since there was no way that we could afford to climb up it.
 
Don't think I'd want to anyway.  Just taking a look at that thing from the ground is enough for me, thank you.  My guidebook says it's got a 13 foot foundation, and it's got 200 feet above the ground, all leaning at a 5 degree angle so that the top is 15 feet off the vertical axis.  And that thing is heavy.  I can't imagine what the stress of all those years of leaning have done to the foundation.  And since the engineers working on the tower probably haven't been able to see that either, on the ground I stay.  With my luck, it would be me falling down all those crooked stairs that would finally cause the whole mess to come crashing down.
 
What I mean by all these paranoid mumblings, is that seeing this tower pretty much will blow your mind.  The story of how the tower's architects and engineers over the years have worked to fix the lean and to preserve the building is impressive in itself.  Because each architect (there were 3) tried to correct the lean by angling his section backwards, so that the top curves back in the other direction, the building looks like it's been caught in a freeze+frame, mid stumble.  Although this didn't fix the problem, it's a good thing they did try, because with the severe lean of the base today, it's hard to imagine that anything would be left today if they'd just piled it all on top like a blind man playing Jenga.
 
Once we'd finished gaping open-mouthed at the tower, taking our required goofy pictures, and wandering through another beautiful church, it was time to grab lunch and head to Pisa's airport.  Here, Cierra had the great idea to try to sell our Italy guidebooks to English speakers coming into Italy.  We fashioned a sign and stood in the arrivals area for an hour, with no one interested.  Turns out that our market research shows most people who go to Italy buy their English guidebooks before they go.  Such planners! The same cannot be said for us, as you'll soon learn in our Malta adventures...

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