Viva Italia - Pisa

Andrew had 2 requests for our trip to Italy. He wanted to eat pizza (surprise) and he wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so today, off to Pisa we went. It's about an hour's train ride from Firenze, and another 20 minute walk across Pisa to the other side of the river where the Tower complex is located. The town (city?) of Pisa itself seemed pretty run-down. There was a lot of construction, but many of the buildings were in disrepair.

To see the that the tower actually does lean is surreal. Construction started in 1172 and the 1st 4 levels were completed before work stopped (maybe because somebody noticed the building wasn't standing up straight?). It took another 200 years before work started again on the next 3 levels. If you look at the tower, it curves. This is because they compensated for the lean when construction began again in the late 1300s.

When you buy your tickets, you are assigned a time. Ours was for mid-afternoon, so we decided to start our tour with the Baptistery and end with the tower. Construction on the Baptistery began in 1152. What is extraordinary about it is the acoustics. Every half hour, the attendant closes the outside doors, and demonstrates the echo. We stayed to hear it twice and each time, she started with one note, added a 3rd, then a 5th above it, to create a one person 3-note chord. Amazing.

The Cathedrale is beautiful too. It also dates from about 1172 (the leaning tower is its bell tower). Elizabeth doesn't like touring churches because of the holy relics. This one just about did her in. One of the side chapels has the skull of a saint in its glass reliquary, and the one in the chapel on the opposite side contains all of St Guido (he had been scattered all over Italy, and they had to find his parts before putting him back together). To add insult to injury, the attendant at the entrance thought E's skirt was too short (we thought she looked pretty chic) and tied a paper skirt around her waist, long enough to cover her knees. We thought it looked pretty chic too, but E was mortified.

The tower itself is still under renovation. Inside the core, there is scaffolding to shore up the structure. It's true that sometimes it feels like you're climbing downhill even when you know you're climbing up, simply because of the slope. The slant is most pronounced at the main entry door. By the time you reach the top, the view is magnificent, and you've stopped noticing that the floor isn't exactly perpendicular to the ground.

Sorry - no picture today either - still having uploading problems. Tomorrow, we tour Firenze properly (il Duomo, the Uffizi) and let there be shoes!