A short trainride from Florence brings us to Pisa. The train-ride was through the absolutely gorgeous Tuscan countryside on a very sunny day.
The train was a tiny one with very few people on board. We arrived in Pisa just before noon. We are assured that this sleepy little town was a sea-trade giant which has now been effectively surpassed by Genoa and Florence. The city of course is known for the biggest architectural goof-up in the world - the leaning tower.
It turns out that the tower was built on marsh-land and as the foundations started sinking, the tower started leaning. Four stories were complete when the leaning commenced. Urgent corrective efforts have been undertaken but even today the tower leans 4m off vertical - yikes!! They allow 30 people on the tower at any given time. I sure hope they have weight restrictions for those 30, because from the looks of it, the tower is one straw away from flattening a bunch of gawking tourits. Another amazing piece of trivia here - evidently, one tower was not enough. Several very nice looking marble buildings in the area lean ...all to varying degrees, but all decidedly off vertical. This town is crazy :)
The twon has some other beautiful squares and is the home of Galileo. Thats the amazing thing with Italy - inch for inch, they see to have contributed the most towards western civilization in several fields - religion (Catholicism), art (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael - not the teenage mutant ninja turtles, mind you), science (Galileo, Leonardo), etc. Even tiny Pisa has done its share....
We ambled around the lovely city all day and then took the train back to Florence. A day well spent...who says everything needs to be at right angles?
-Hari
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