Pisa

You might be asking yourself - where are all the pictures of Pisa?!?! Well, this is it... I talked to Luis, a guy from work before I left for Europe. He has been everywhere and knows all there is to know - especially about Italy. As he looked over my itinerary, the first thing he asked was "What are you going to do in Pisa for a whole day?"... Uh... I thought I would see Pisa?! He told me that you can see Pisa in 2 hours - and that's having lunch!!! Lo and Behold he was soooo right. The Square - which has the Battistero (Circular Baptistry), Camposanto (Cemetery), Duomo (Cathedral) and, of course, the La Torre di Pisa (Leaning Tower) - is really all there is to see in Pisa - all very centrally located and very very very touristic!

Duomo (Cathedral) from top of Tower

which is considered the most important

expression of Pisan Romanesque

I was very excited about the picture on the right. When traveling by yourself, it's sometimes difficult to get yourself in a picture. I always try to find someone with a similar camera (so they don't run off with mine) and, if possible, someone who speaks English.

Well, in this case, I had a random Italian guy who spoke no English (and we've already established that I know very little Italian) take my picture. It seems like everyone has to have one of these pictures - all day long people are lining up with their friends trying to make them stand in just the right place.

I must say he did such a good job telling me where to move so I stood just right - I was so proud!

Circular Baptistry and

Duomo from top of Tower

La Torre di Pisa

Official Name: TORRE PENDENTE DI PISA
Function: Bell Tower (Campanile)
Original Architect: Bonanno Pisano
Architect who realized that it could not be straightened:
Tomasso di Andrea da Pontedera (1275)
Years Built: 1173-1350

In November of 2001, after ten years of tower rehabilitation, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy was reopened to tourists with a limit of 25 to 30 visitors at a time to climb the 297 stairs.

The $30 million project to stabilize the 12th-century bell tower is being hailed as one of the great engineering feats of all time, making the 200-foot- (60-meter-) high tower safe for the next 300 years.

This procedure reduced the lean by 20 inches (50 centimeters) as measured in a horizontal plane at the seventh cornice. This returns the tower to the lean it had in 1838.

Leaning Tower of Pisa