We arrived to discover, much to our dismay, that there was no pizza in the tower to be found...so I kicked it over.
What is the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Well, essentially, it is a bell tower that some idiot built incorrectly.
But maybe you want more details.
The Tower makes up one-fourth of the town square, Campo dei Miracoli, which translates to Field of Miracles. This complex also houses The Cathedral of Pisa (Il Duomo), the Baptistry, and the Monumental Cemetery.
Fun Fact: Galileo was baptized here in 1565.
The square's buildings were constructed using beautiful white marble, whose stark contrast against the green grass, blue sky, and colorful buildings surrounding left me with the silly notion that the monuments looked fake. Too perfect. Like toys that some giant child was going to come collect at any moment.
I say "some idiot" because historians are not exactly sure who was the brains behind building the tower.
Giovanni Pisano, Giovanni di Simone, and Tommaso Pisano worked to complete the structure during different installments over the course of 200 years. It is most probably Diotisalvi, though the lack of his usual signature creates skepticism amongst historians. This leaves the other two most probable architects, Bonanno Pisano and Gherardo din Gherardo, for consideration; however, the original architect remains unknown so the city has yet to lay blame for the ill-conceived architectural plans.
I say "some idiot" because not only is the tower leaning at a 3.97 degree angle, it is crooked.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans because it is sinking. In fact, the city got its name from the Greek word "pisa" meaning "marshy land." (Give me a word. Any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek!)
Construction began on the monument in 1173 and wasn't completed until 1372. The project's efforts had to be halted numerous times due to war and that pesky fact that the sinking ground was causing the tower to lean.
Throughout the years, the architects attempted to compensate for the lean by building the upper-level stories at an angle, with the north side walls shorter than the sinking south side's, producing a curved structure.
There have been many efforts to stabilize the tower, even in recent years. After being closed to the public, the tower was again open to tourists in 2001 following reconstruction efforts that claimed the tower would be stable for 300 years. Yet somehow just seven years later, in 2008, after more efforts to stabilize the foundation, the tower was promised 200 years without interference.
So naturally, feeling incredibly safe under these conditions, my mother and I climbed to the top of the sinking tower.
As I mentioned earlier, the Leaning Tower is actually a bell tower that houses 7 bells, one for each note in the C Major scale. The climb up is wider than I expected, after all the cathedrals we scaled in Europe, though it is uneven as the 297 stairs are worn in some areas.
It's difficult to say how high up we were as the north side of the tower is 56.67 meters (185.93 feet) tall while the south side is 55.86 meters (183.27 feet) tall.
The only thing left to do was join the other hundreds of tourists on the lawn to attempt fun landmark photos. After all, there are so many ways to try and hold the Leaning Tower up.
At the end of our adventure, we realized we were hungry. So we went and got some delicious Italian pizza.
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Show me your amazing photographs with famous landmarks! What did you think of the Leaning Tower on your visit? Let me know with a comment below!
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