Leaning Tower of Pisa

There it stood, luminous and ancient, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I had been itching and itching to see this, and the car ride seemed to have stretched on forever. Well, now I was here, and it was amazing. It was really leaning! I suspect the tower must lean about 5 degrees! I wondered what it would be like to climb it. I couldn't wait...

I stepped onto the marble base and I lost my equilibrium. It was just so severely tilting! I straightened up, and marched into the tower.

Walking up the three hundred stairs, I couldn't help but notice the huge tilt that made me want to fall against the side! Well, at least I had found a sense of equilibrium. We finally reached the seventh floor, the first floor that you could walk out onto and admire the view. The view was stunning. I was stunned. I could see all of Pisa and what lay beyond it, all the way to the mountains. Beauty, in its purest form....

Finally, we were on the last floor. I could actually see the tilt here. It just gave me another head rush. Oh well, at least the view was pretty...

That was another thing I could tick off my list. The 'I have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa' box was hot off the list. The tower, was actually in a plaza with a cathedral, a baptistry, two museums, a monumental cemetery and the tower itself. We went to the baptistry, a large and ornate dome that rose out of the ground and whisked anyone off their feet. The large door was sculpted from precious bronze and had little statues set into each panel. They were open, and so we just showed our tickets and walked into this amazing building.

It was omniescent. There was an octagonal pool which I later learnt was called a baptismal font in the middle of the huge room and the water would be collected from rain falling through a manmade hole in the roof. The priest would stand on a sleek wooden pulpit with sculpted lions and eagles. There are two floors in the baptistry. The men would be on the bottom level, and the women on the top. The ambience of the whole place made me feel extremely peaceful.

The cathedral was luminescent and pure. The stained glass windows lit the cathedral with dappled sunlight that shone through. The various statues of the apostles, saints, evangelists, monumental people, busts, and others. The painted roof was blue and gold, arched too. I just felt special and a warm glow was starting to creep up from my stomach.

We went into the two museums, which displayed a lot of art and sculptures. The busts showed the monumental people of the time. There were a couple of paintings in there too, but it was mainly sculptures and artefacts. Guido d'Arezzo's music system were in the music sheets that I saw too. The sculptures were extremely detailed. I loved it.

We went into The Monumental Cemetery where the floor was tiled with tombs. I wondered if they had people in them, because the ones that WERE opened didn't. There was a courtyard in the middle full of soft and delicate grass. They also had marble busts of the people buried displayed. Eerie...

Finally we had done it all. I bought a mini leaning tower and we hit the road.