I am in Pisa for the weekend. I arrived at 1:45 and was ready to move on at 5. In fact, I will. Tomorrow I will take the train to Lucca which is only 30 minutes away.
Really, though. It's not terrible. It's just that it's a bit worn out. There is a lively University here and it has that kind of groove, a European University town. While I was having lunch, the chaps at the table next to me were engaged in a spirited discussion of Russian history. And they thought it was interesting!
Most of the interesting bits are in the Campo dei Miracoli (the Field of Miracles) and there are several miracles there indeed. The leaning tower is only one of them.
Okay....there are so many silly tourists trying to hold up the tower:
That no one is even looking at the tower! It's absolutely beautiful! Poetic! A miracle of GLORY!
It was begun in 1173 most likely under the architect's eye of Bonanno Pisano. It took 5 years to complete the base and the first floor. Even then, it was starting to lean. The problem was that they were building it in a marshy ground and as they kept building up, it kept leaning. They stopped at three floors. Stood back and said, "hmmmm......" In 1272, they tried again. The next architect tried to fix the problem by angling the next three floors backward, toward the lean. And they all stood back and said, "hmmmmmm......" The last architect, Tommaso Pisano, finished it from 1350-72, trying to correct the lean and he ...... didn't. Prego!
But it's gorgeous! And remember you're being watched:
And that is very exciting in a way.
Here'e my report on the rest of the Field of Miracles:
Thank you so much for going to Pisa. So that I never have to.
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