The Leaning Tower of Pisa & Florence

October 20, 2013

My husband remembers sitting at his families favorite Italian restaurant, coloring the place mat menu covered in iconic Italian locations. He believes this is when he first learned about the leaning Tower of Pisa. His mother would joke about it being a leaning tower of pizza. He shared this funny story with me as we walked toward the entrance to the real tower not made of pizza.

The Chapel, followed by the Cathedral, finally the
 Tower of Pisa

The tower of Pisa and the cathedral it was built for are located inside a large courtyard that is surrounded by a 30 foot high wall. Right away you can see the famous tower because the walled area is not as big as I would have imagined; nor is the tower as tall as I would have thought.

The Cathedral

Built in 1100 AD, the tower represents a segway between Heaven and Earth. Immediately after construction the tower began to lean and has slowly tilted with time. There has been reconstruction efforts to stabilize the tower which are pretty noticeable when examining the architecture. Surprisingly the structure is still stable enough for tourist to venture to the top for a look around the courtyard. When standing next to the tower, looking at the great difference in depth of the ground around the base, it is shocking it is still standing at all.

Right side base of the tower.
Notice the difference?

Left side of the base of the tower.
Looks level on this side.

                                                

                                                      The entrance to the Tower of Pisa.
                                                  Something is not right here! 

Outside the walls, the city of Pisa is rather desolate and run down. It's obviously the only draw to the city. If touring Italy I would recommend it because it was super cheap but expect a feeding frenzy of “looky looky” men aggressively trying to make a sale.

October 21, 2013

Florence is the Renaissance art capital of Europe; therefore it was no surprise that the city is overly decorated with fountains and sculptures. I like to call it the city of a thousand marble sculptures because when looking through my pictures from our day there it seems like that is all we saw.

Replica of the statue of David
by Michaelangelo

Every square we wandered through included a fountain, sculptures around the perimeter, and church as the focal point. Most of the cathedrals are built out of red, white, and green colored marble; very unique amongst all the cathedrals we have seen.

Arno River in Florence, Italy

Our visit was delightful; yet short because the weather was not in our favor. We experienced a thunderstorm with the loudest thunder I have ever heard later in the day. A good reason to snuggle in with a book for the rest of the evening.