Leaning Tower of Pizza? (Pisa trip)

So of course one of the iconic landmarks of Italy is the leaning tower of Pisa. And of course that became a main priority of mine to visit. So one Saturday a few friends and I took the train from Florence to Pisa (using the train it is roughly 14 euro roundtrip). When you arrive in Pisa you pretty quickly realize the reason you never hear anything else about Pisa. It is because other than the Cathedral and the tower that is freestanding from it... there is nothing else to see. The city itself is rather boring and uneventful. So for those who plan to travel to Italy know that if you are staying in a nearby city such as Florence, you really only need 4 hours max for travel, site-seeing, and returning.

The tower itself is remarkable, as well as the cathedral that it is meant to accompany. The dramatic lean of the bottom of the tower gives you the constant feeling that it is going to tip over at any moment. However, the top of the tower is completely straight. It is so perplexing to see. And upon examination of the Cathedral I also saw major flaws in its architecture as well. When looking you can see that the different levels of windows aren't symmetrical, the bottom level slopes up so the second row slopes down in order to allow for the third row to be entirely level. I couldn't help but laugh at the horrible worksmanship of the architect who made both. I also couldn't help being entirely curious why the tower was leaning. Upon research I realized it was because the original architect who was building the tower did not check the foundation and realize that some of the soil was unfit for supporting such a large monument. So when it began to slope work was halted on the tower. During that time a war broke out also halting progress. During this time the soil was able to settle and support the monument. So instead of scrapping the entire project they continued to build on it. How odd. When you know the tower is guaranteed to slope why would you just continue on knowing it would continue to lean? I think this unique mentality is so funny as well as so interesting. Was this then meant to become art? Was it the purpose of the tower to bring more people to Pisa? I guess we'll never really know.

My favorite part is I was finally able to accomplish a project of mine... to get a photograph dancing with major international monuments. I am hoping to continue this project as I travel through Europe. So stay tuned for additional photos :)