Alexanders in the Mediterranean: Pisa!

It's beautiful when you walk through the ancient city gates.

Ross, Jessie and I got up early (oh...about 8:00 am...Ross was 8:30 am) and caught a bus then train to Pisa (about 20 minutes by bus and 1 hour by train). We had to sail past it on the way up the coast to Porto Lotti as we were in a hurry to park the boat while Matt went home for work. Pisa was on the "gotta see list", so off we went with a few grumbles from sleepy Ross. An uneventful train ride, except a pain in the butt conductor who threatened to charge me an extra 50 Euro EACH! for not validating our tickets. Here in Italy, the self serve tickets apparently must be validated the day you use them. I figured I bought a ticket today, at the train station, from the station I was leaving, to the station I was arriving at, (and return by the way)...what's wrong with that? Well, these tickets can be used any day within a couple of months so they must be validated the day you use them. ARGH!

The cathedral and the bell tower askew behind.

He threatened 50 Euro each and charged us 5 Euro each. This by the way, is not nearly obvious in the train stations when you buy your tickets...had the vending machine said "Please remember to validate your ticket on the day of use...grazie!" ... I'd have felt much more at fault. So...whatever, take your 15 Euro and go bug the next tourists...which he did. I think he collected over 60 Euro in fines in our rail car alone.

We went to the Baptistery (apprarently the biggest one in Italy), Cathedral and of course the "Leaning Tower"...the bell tower for the cathedral, with faulty engineering, which has made this city famous around the world. A big oops and tourism for your city becomes it's main economy...go figure?

The basic story is this (thanks to help from Wiki): Construction of the tower occurred in three stages across 177 years. Work on the ground floor of the white marble campanile began on August 8, 1173. The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the second floor in 1178. This was due to a mere three-metre foundation, set in weak, unstable subsoil, a design that was flawed from the beginning.

Flaked out enjoying the grass.

Construction was subsequently halted for almost a century, due to several years of battling neighbours. This allowed time for the underlying soil to settle - otherwise, the tower would almost certainly have toppled.In 1198 clocks were temporarily installed on the third floor of the unfinished construction.

Ross...sleeping? Listening to music? Watching a movie?
At least he's not grumbling!

In 1272 construction resumed and in an effort to compensate for the tilt, the engineers built upper floors with one side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is actually curved and it got worse. Construction was halted again in 1284 for more military battles.

The seventh floor was completed in 1319. There are seven bells, one for each note of the musical major scale. The largest one was installed in 1655. The bell-chamber was finally added in 1372.

Unfortunately I didn't get the goat's expression under
the beast...his eyes are like a deer in headlights.
"OMG...NOT GOOD!"

After a phase (1990–2001) of structural strengthening, the tower is currently undergoing gradual surface restoration, in order to repair visual damage, mostly corrosion and blackening. These are particularly pronounced due to the tower's age and its exposure to wind and rain.

You gotta have the cheesy photo right???

We wandered around, had lunch in a little pizza joint nearby (spent about $8 on 4 cokes for the kids!...pizza is cheaper!), then went to get tickets to climb the tower. We had a couple of hours to kill until our time slot (can you hear Ross grumbling???) so we flaked out on the grass, Ross listened to music (or watched a movie on his iPod...not sure which), and Jessie and I played cards and chilled. Our time was 3 pm so we went over around 2:45 and waited to go in with about 25 other people.

The lower stairwell up the tower.

It didn't feel crowded (although the stairwells were tight!). It was one-way only from the top level to the top of the bell tower. Worth the wait and the climb, which was strange as you circled the building the stairs leaned one way and then the other, to catch a nice view of the Duomo area. Then...we beelined it for Tara. A brisk walk to the train station...VALIDATED OUR TICKETS...an hour later we took a bus (after the kids begged me to stop at Rotten Ronnies) and voila, home again. And now...some more photos.