The Leaning Tower

This past weekend, my friends and I took the train ride into Pisa to see the infamous Leaning Tower. Upon arrival we looked up the history of the tower so we would know exactly what we were looking at and the significance of it. Here is what we found: “The tower was built as a freestanding bell tower for the cathedral of Pisa. [It] took 344 years to build, beginning in August 1173. It began to lean in 1178 once the construction on the second floor began. The lean was due to one side sinking into the soft ground” (Wikipedia.com).

While starring at this monument that was built during the Roman Empire, I thought to myself: “how lucky am I to be standing underneath this beautiful structure.” I did notice, however, that the monument was a lot smaller than I had anticipated it to be and was nothing like I imagined it would be from the pictures I had seen. It was interesting to me that within the small town of Pisa, the only thing that kept people coming and the businesses going was this structure. Interestingly enough, the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been reconstructed with metal wiring a few years back to help the tower from having such a dramatic lean. I was fascinated by this because how can such a big structure be pulled backwards with a couple of wires? But the town was determined to make sure this building did not fall and that the tourism for their quaint town did not end.

Behind where I am standing from this picture was a grass field as well as a handful of churches that are not even recognized, and yet are just as beautiful. There is a statue of an Angel, known now as the “Fallen Angel” since it is laying on its side, being overgrown with grass. I find the little courtyard in which all of these structures stand, a place where so many bodies have been over the years, to be a place of peace. It had this wonderful sound of nothingness. No echos. No voices. Just the sound of beauty, if beauty was a sound. Of course being the tourist that I am, I had to take the cliche holding of the tower picture, #basic, but totally worth it. No need for metal wires when you have the tourists constantly holding it up!