This afternoon, I joined a tour bus that head to the town of Pisa. Pisa is known more than for its leaning bell tower. Today, the city of Pisa has close to 90,000 inhabitants, many churches, a university that dates back to the 11th century. The Italians do recognise the positive changes brought on during Napoleonic Empire, as the schooling followed the French system.
The site of the leaning bell tower is marvellous. Funny, all these years, I would see images of this place and I was never able to imagine the size of this bell tower, the baptistery nearby and the church.
The bell tower was closed for almost ten years, but they recently have decided to re-open it to the public. For 15 Euros and 280 some odd stairs, you can climb the tower in this steam bath of a weather. Can you tell I didn't do it?
Instead, I joined the myriad of other retarded tourists trying to take pictures "pushing", "kicking" or "carrying" the tower. It's today, when I had hoped to travel with a professional photographer to take some "retarded" touristy shots of me and the tower. Alas, I tried grabbing passerbys and asked them to help me place my hand or foot in the right spot...instead, I have plenty of shots with me "giving up" the search for that typical, tourist pose! Ho hum....
Some interesting facts about this location:
-There are no records of the creator of this blessed leaning tower...after all who would want to have their name on this leaning structure? Wouldn't look so good on their portfolios, no?
-The church and the Baptistery are also leaning. The soil is too wet for such big structures, as Pisa is very close to the Mediterranean sea.
-They have beautiful grass sprawled all over the square. But they have hired POLICE BRGADE to keep tourists off from the green growth. So lying on your back, looking at the sky and admiring the intricate details of the architecture is a NO NO.
There you have it...The Pisa review.
Btw, am all Pizza-ed out!
Ciao, ciao!
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