Big and Leaning Towers

We planted ourselves in Siena, Tuscany for two days in hopes of exploring the country side and smaller towns. However, we feel to truly get that experience you need to rent a car and go at your own leisure.

We stayed in a cabin at a great campsite called Camping Colleverde and spent a day in San Gimignano, one of the medieval towns in Europe that survived WWII with its towers and city wall intact. It actually reminded us of an Italian Rothenburg and there were several German tourists so that probably added to the feeling as well. Wine production is very popular in this area and you see grape vine plots along the hillsides and olive groves all around town.

On the bus ride to the city you pass a couple classic Tuscany sunflower fields with cottages set up on hills surrounded by Cyprus trees. There are a couple museums in the city and the Torre Grossa, or Big Tower, that offers a lovely view of the city. It was a little windy above the city and I pulled a Marilyn Monroe a couple times. Afterward we bought some spicy cheese, salami, and Chianti in the town square we headed back to enjoy the fair.

On the way to Naples we stopped in Pisa to strike a ridiculous pose like all the other thousand tourist at the leaning tower. We actually found people watching more enjoyable than the actual attraction. So how does a poor engineering design become one of the most visited sites in Europe? Well it starts like this: In 1173 construction began on a foundation of loose and unstable mixture of clay and soil that resulted in a ground shift. The lean was first noticed after the third story was completed, however, it was too late to correct. So, like Aggie Engineering close to straight was good enough and they continued buidling. Today the white marble tower weighs over 14,500 tons (that’s 31,967,028 lbs) and leans at a 3.99 degree angle after restoration corrected the 5.5 degree tilt in 2001!