Europe 102: Lean with the Tower

The Bell Tower

What made traveling through Europe convenient is their trains. Not exactly for long travels but for shorter trips. I can hear Sheldon says "Boo! Yeah!" :D While in Florence, we decided to have a day trip in Pisa. Initially, there were some problems in all the scheduled trips to Pisa so we decided instead to go the next day. It was also the first time that we (mostly him, I just watched) used their ticket booths translated to multiple languages (and I mean, more than 2). In the Philippines, we usually just have either Filipino or English language in our booths or machines. So, for me, it was pretty cool but I wouldn't dare touch any other languages than English.

The Leaning Compound - Cathedral & Bell Tower

I am particularly excited about this trip because Pisa's architecture has been used as part of some physics problems. Although, I could barely remember what the problem was... or any other physics problems actually. I'm either physically absent or mentally absent. It's mostly the latter. ;) But what I do remember is the architecture itself... the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Basically, because its leaning naturally. I really wanted to have a look at it and continue to wonder why it's still standing. Plus, it makes a really fun picture. ;)

One thing is for sure, you won't get to see the tower at the city center itself. Going to the tower, we passed over the Arno river, same river that passes through the city of Florence. What I really like about being at bridges in Italy is that you can see the colorful buildings alongside the river. And this scene is also present in Pisa. They look something like a mixture between legos and doll houses. Like they were really arrange into some kind of order.

The Tilted Bell

Anyways, what surprises me when I arrived there is that not only is the bell tower that is leaning but the other buildings as well. This is something that's not mentioned in those physics problems. So, it's really not really about the tower but the grounds in that part of the city. Trivia: Because of the weak foundation of the ground, the tower had been leaning gradually throughout the years. However, the guide told us that because of the recent construction, the tower will be stable for another 200 years more. Whew! Good! We still have 200 years to enjoy climbing the tower. And we did! :)

It was both tiring and fun to climb the tower. Tiring... well, for obvious almost-300-steps reason. And fun because you get to see the marks of the steps at the stairs... and the marks always leads to the side (not the center). So, we climb and climb... and now I know how almost-300 steps feels like with boots on. However, the view at the top is breathtaking. From there, you can already see the entire town of Pisa. And not so surprising is that the bell of the tower looks tilted.. but then we know that it's not the bell but the tower that is tilted. Cute, right?

Boots over Tower

In the Internet, I saw a lot of fun pictures that people do with the tower (from the ground). So, we made sure that we don't made a copy of their poses. Although, I doubt that ours are originals. With the popularity of the place, I'm sure someone somewhere have already made the same. Anyways, whether its a copy cut or not, it was still fun.

We didn't go to anywhere else around Pisa but the tower alone and the cathedral on the side is already a sight to see. I could imagine myself back inside the classroom, watching my prof drawing the tower with chalks all over him and the board is filled with measurements, angles, some computations on the side. All I can see is the tower the rest are blurry. And it seems surreal that I've been in it... and leaned with it.

Next appointment, the Pope! Ciao!