Thanks to Princess Cruises for inviting us along and providing this adventure! As always, all opinions are our own. See our entire Mediterranean voyage aboard the Royal Princess here
We’re not sure if we have ever heard the word Pisa without “leaning tower” in front of it.
There is good reason for that, the gravity defying belfry is certainly the star of the show.
So after a visit to Florence, we stopped on our way back to The Royal Princess, docked in nearby Livorno, to give the paparazzi treatment to the celebrity and snap the obligatory photos.
Ever since they were invented, any camera in the vicinity of the tower has been used to take the same basic photograph.
We’d even be willing to bet there were pictures painted before the advent of film.
Sure there are variations on the theme, but they all come down to holding up the tower one way or another.
So we did our duty and started out with the classic two-handed (with the addition of Veronica bracing for the fall for extra style points)…
then the casual…
and finally the “look ma, one finger”…
But we were certainly not alone. Attempting to improve on the old standbys, folks were trying a jumping jolt….
a multi generational hold…
a piggyback push…
while balancing on a fence…
and a full airborne assault.
See our entire Mediterranean voyage here
But over the years all of these helpers weren’t really helping, the tower kept leaning more and more.
So much that some people thought the fact that it was standing at all must be a miracle and began to call the square Piazza dei Miracoli, or Plaza of Miracles, instead of its real name, Piazza del Duomo, or Plaza of the Cathedral.
On closer inspection we could see some evidence of the tower’s history, a slight change above the third floor.
Construction began in 1173 as the bell tower for the cathedral, but was halted after three stories because the building was already beginning to sink on one side.
A century later, after deciding things had stabilized enough, construction recommenced but, in an attempt to straighten things out a bit, the new floors were added at a slight angle.
By the time the tower was completed in 1319, the straightening seemed to have worked, and there was only a slight list of one degree off of vertical.
But time would change that, by 1990 the lean was a frightening five and a half degrees and something had to be done or it really would be a miracle if the tower stayed standing.
Using excavations, cables, and even giant lead weights, engineers managed to straighten things up by seventeen inches, and stop the progress of the slow fall to the point that people are once again allowed to climb up into the tower.
But since we were not allowed to test Pisa’s most famous native son Galileo’s experiment of dropping cannonballs of various weights from the top to prove that they fall at the same speed, or perhaps because we just didn’t feel like spending over an hour in line, we decided to pass on that and check out the rest of the piazza.
As we mentioned, the tower is the main attraction, but the other structures in the Piazza del Duomo are pretty impressive too. There wouldn’t be a tower if not for the cathedral Santa Maria Assunta (St. Mary of the Assumption) that predates the bell tower by a full century.
And around the same time as work began on the tower, the Pisa Baptistry was begun, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist.
As wonky as things in the piazza seemed, we were not sure if our eyes were playing tricks on us, but it certainly looked like the Baptistry had a slight lean going on too.
We looked into it and it wasn’t our eyes. While nowhere near enough to inspire an onslaught of goofy pictures, the building is nearly one degree off of vertical.
On our way out of the piazza, just outside the Porta Nuova (New Gate) that opens through the medieval walls, we found another marvel, the leaning tower of grappa.
Guaranteed to give even the sturdiest person a little lean.
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
Thanks to Princess Cruises for inviting us along and providing this adventure! As always, all opinions are our own. See our entire Mediterranean voyage aboard the Royal Princess here
See all of our adventures in Italy!
YOUR TURN: Have you been to Pisa? Did you/would you take the goofy pic?
d reading this, very good stuff, thank you.
What is that underarm growth in tower picture 3? Looks kinda funny.
Not sure if you mean the trees or the man’s head… either way… funny.
Honestly, it is kind of refreshing to see people having that much fun while site seeing! Pisa was not at the top of our bucket list, but maybe we will have to stop by sometime for the show:-)
Its a good stopover, only takes a couple hours to see everything.
love the selection of photos! so many gimmicky ways you can interact with the tower! Great post!
Thanks Andrew!
Pisa is seriously one of the best places to people watch because they do the quintessential tower pose.
You’re right, and almost everybody does it. They just can’t help it.
haha, I think I like the pics of people in their goofy positions taking their own pics. They look extremely awkward.
Seems as though there is no way to avoid striking the classic pose.
These pictures are hilarious!! I thoroughly enjoyed this very entertaining post. Thanks for sharing.
No way could we pass up the goofy pictures!
The poses people do are quite funny and I enjoy seeing ones that are most creative, although you always have to do the standards ones! The picture with the flying bird it in is pretty awesome. Enjoyed reading through the post 🙂
Thanks Taylor. People really have fun there.
It must be quite amusing to watch everyone in the course of a day, trying to get the most comical photo. Think you mastered it though!
Thanks Michael! It was quite a show.
Pisa’s pretty cool, isn’t it? I was amazed at how good the buildings look in person! I had experienced the tower to be old, dirty and decrepit. But instead, the tower was newly cleaned and nearly sparkling white! A wonderful piece of history in a beautiful medieval city.
They do look great, especially for 900 years old!
I love number three. It should get a prize for the “Cheesiest Pisa Photo!”
It’s hard to pick but thanks!