This is one of those tourism sites that you have heard about your whole life. It is nothing super amazing like the pyramids or the grand canyon but it is still iconic.
Pisa is about a 30 minute train ride from Lucca where we were staying in Tuscany. We bought tickets ahead of time for 3 of the 5 of us adults to climb the tower. Dzigbordi is not one for heights and my mom did not feel here legs were up to it. Kids were not allowed so we had to buy two different windows of tickets to make this work. So we were on a bit of a time crunch that morning. When traveling with the extra families and kids it is kinda like herding chickens. There is also the issue that the one rental car that we had was not enough for all of us so it involved one trip to the train station for some of to take the train and then my sister and her family drove. Luckily the train station was just a short walk to the tower as you can see on the approach above.
We all reached the piaza about the same time as the ones that drove. Since this was still in early June the place was not as busy as it gets more into the height of the tourism season. Which is a relief to me as I don't like huge crowds and Dzigbordi is the same.
The Piaza has several historical buildings, churches, and museums. Since we were traveling with 3 toddlers our focus was on the big ticket items which today would be the Tower of Pisa and then some lunch and back to Lucca. I wish I could give you more information about what the other buildings were in this picture but since I didn't visit them they have not really stuck in my memory.
I like the contrast of the perfect green grass against the historical structures which managed the crowds and allowed people to clearly see them.
Even though they have had to shore up the foundation and straighten the tower a few times to keep it from falling the lean is still very noticeable from some angles. Especially this angle where it can be compared to the straight up and down of the cathedral to the left.
My wife and little man. Here you can see the base and how one side is very noticeable sunken in compared to the other side. The entrance is to the left there.
Here is another picture of the base from the other side. There have been restorative works throughout time, you can see here it looks like one of the marble pillars has been replaced with cement.
We were blessed with a beautiful blue sky and a few clouds early in the day. It rained hard about the time we were done and we had to take some cover before trying to get to the train station.
My sister and I took the first shift to climb the tower. The entrance is arched with an access to the stairway and then to the center room which is hallow all the way to the top. It now has some ugly industrial equipment which helps with restoration and repairs.
After the climb we were greeted with some stunning panoramic views.
Overlooking the rest of Pisa. This is looking south so the mountains are the the left and the Med would be to the right. You can see the weather starting to come in here.
The original purpose of the tower was a bell tower for the basilica, this bell tower has now become more famous than the basilica that it accompanies. The top crown of the tower has many different bells of different shapes and sizes.
After we climbed back down my brother in-law took his turn. We all then went to have lunch and made our way back to Lucca.
Thanks for taking another little trip with me, this time to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.