"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Saturday, July 21, 2001: The Leaning Tower - Pisa, Italy

Frank here…

The Torre Pendante (Leaning Tower of Pisa) was an awesome sight. Danielle (Gabrielle's younger brother and my cousin Rosa's son) spotted me immediately after I stepped out of the train station. On the way down from the Firenze stop, I tried to stay awake so that I would not miss the train stop at Pisa.

Our first stop was grocery shopping where we bought food for lunch that we prepared at their home in Gella (a town right next to Pisa). And, just like the rest of his family, he would not let me pay for anything. I think I got away with paying for something small.

He drove me around town and took me, of course, to the great Torre Pendante. It was a very stunning sight! And it sure was leaning. There still were a number of tourists there, but not as much as in mid-day or what was ahead in August. The tower was in the beautiful Campo dei Miracoli. What I felt gave this square the honour of being one of the world's finest is the fact that it has a lawn. It is not all set in concrete, stone, marble or steel. Instead it is surrounded by lush greenery where people lounge for a picnic, students study, some stretch and exercise like Tai Chi, lovers come to enjoy each others' company in a beautiful setting.

The tower shares space on the campo with the very impressive duomo and the battistero (baptistry). The lean is very evident when you compare the sides of the tower with the adjacent duomo and battistero.

The story goes that the tower started to lean by the time of the construction (which began in 1173) of the third tier. It continued to shift at about one millimetre per year and by the 1990 it was more than five metres off centre to the south which is about 10% of its height of 60 metres. Just before 2000, a series of cables, counterweights, and alterations to the subsoil were used to try to correct some of the lean. It has been somewhat successful, but still is not safe for tourists to enter. Unfortunately, tourists were forbidden to enter the building since 1990. The plan was to open it up again this year but tourists were denied again by the time I got there. The tower weighs 14,500 tonnes and is 19.6 metres in diameter. It is said that Galileo used to walk the 293 steps to do some experiments on gravity.

Danielle and I walked around town, did some internet work and had some gelati (ice cream) before heading back to their home. I hung around and waited for Gabrielle to get home from work. In the meantime I saw on the news that the G8 summit demonstrations at Genova (Genoa) have escalated to the point of a young demonstrator being killed. Goodness! What in the world would provoke such violence? These "peaceful" G8 demonstrations seem to be a magnet for a few to cause unneeded harm. Also in the news I learnt that Mount Etna in Sicily has gotten very active and that lava was flowing quite heavily. Fortunately Danielle's mom, Rosa, and my aunt and uncle are all safe.

I was quite impressed by Gabrielle's uniform when he got home around midnight. We were happy to see each other and chatted for hours before finally hitting the sack somewhere about 4:00am. Goodnight.

-When people of influence start the ball rolling, they must be very, very careful in realizing the extent and implications of their message, and they must realize that their message is rarely sent to an ideal audience, which can potentially result in unforeseen and unpredictable behavior and results.

-Frank Pollari

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