Pisa - April 19 - 21, 2006
The Leaning Tower of Pisa really does lean! It is quite amazing when you are standing next to it. it is also quite hard to catch in a photo. I think this one is accurate. The tower is the campanile or bell tower for the cathedral, which you can see on the right from the back.
This one also seems to capture the lean accurately. See how the corner of the cathedral is straight?
You can climb up to the top of the tower, so we did that on our second morning.
You can walk around on the level with the bells and then go all the way to the top.
There's Jim standing on the other side from me at the very top.
Looking down on the cathedral from the tower. The dome of this cathedral is elliptical.
On the way down I took some pictures of the steps. Near the top, the wide stairway becomes a small spiral one. Can you see how worn the marble steps are?
It was dark here, so this picture isn't great, but this is what the stairway looked like for most of the way. It wound around inside the outer wall. The steps were uneven and the walls tilted; the angle of tilt, of course depending on which side you were on. It was a bit disorienting. You can also see there is no hand rail.
How many people does it take to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa? There are at least 4 here posing. The woman in red is showing her husband the picture she just took of him "holding up the tower." No one was too old or too young for this.
Well, except Ceci. If you can imagine Jim and me doing that, you have a good imagination.
We had coffee in this cafe near the tower.
Is this the prettiest car-port covering you've ever seen?
We saw wisteria in full bloom everywhere!
A typical street in Pisa.
The prestigious Scuola Normale Superior whose graduates include physicist Enrico Fermi.
The church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri.
Ceiling inside Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri.
The Palazzo dell'Orologia on the same Piazza as the school and church above.
Looking through the archway of the Palazzo dell'Orologio.
Borgo Stretto used to house some of Pisa's noble families; now contains shops and cafes.
Another plaza with more cafes.
Pisa also sits on the Arno. The little church on the right, built in 1323 used to be down by the water, but was moved to higher ground. It's called Santa Maria della Spina.
Santa Maria della Spina, the river Arno and the mountains of Tuscany.
Jim's colleague and our hosts in Pisa, Lorenzo and wife Emmanuella took us out for a wonderful Tuscan dinner in a small village near Pisa.
