A Well Kept Man

Seriously, how does this thing not fall over?? I have always been suspect of the "lean" on the Tower of Pisa, that is until I ventured a look for myself. Let's just say that "Leaning" is a bit understated, that tower is in full tilt. Unfortunately I left my protractor in Minnesota, so I was unable to calculate the angle the Tower makes with the ground (it's safe to say that it is an acute angle...so for those currently in geometry, that means the angle is between which two values?)

I also didn't expect Pisa to be as touristy as it was...there was a throng of camera toting English speaking crazies. It seems the most popular thing to do in Pisa is try to think of something creative to do in a picture to make it look like you are causing the lean on the tower, or just enabling a behavior as a result of the tower's lean. I should have snapped a photo of all of the tourists and their various poses, but that would detract from the originality of my poses.

We also ventured inside the Duomo (my Italian isn't very good, I assume this means "House of God," or church for short) which was very unique. The church housed some neat paintings, the preserved remains of St. Ranieri (patron saint of Pisa), an awesome frescoed dome, as well as a gilded ceiling and the tomb of Henry VII (ooh, just one Henry short of the famed Henry VIII). We spent a few hours here in the Piazza of Miracles which also houses a couple other buildings which we didn't go into (a museum, a baptistery, and the cemetery...which I guess we kind of walked by but didn't exactly examine) before heading to Lucca in the afternoon (much cooler city by the way, less touristy, and more Italian). Pisa was also crawling with vendors hawking their goods, which ranged from "fine" leather purses to mechanitronic dogs that bark and do back flips (they also had designer knock-off sunglasses, porcelain plates, knick knacks, and souveniers). I wouldn't necessarily recommend going out of your way to visit Pisa, but if you are nearby (within an hour) it is worth a stopover.