The Leaning Tower of Pisa

We were really exhausted so we went directly from the airport to the leaning tower. I thought it would be bigger. I also thought it would be leaning more. It kinda reminded me of a plastic toy. It just looked so fake! We laid on the grass below it and napped. During this time and American man and his wife sat down beside us and began to read the history of the tower. It prevented my nap- but I did learn quite a bit about the tower. For example, the tower used to lean the other direction! They put heavier stones on the other side as they were continuing to build it to correct the problem, but they over corrected! In fact, they kept doing this, so if you look closely it you can tell that different sections of the tower lean in different directions. Also they did some serious restoration to the tower in the early 1990’s and when they re-opened the tower they had corrected like 10% of the lean --- bringing the tower back to the lean it had back in the 1800’s. This means that if you saw the tower in 1960-1970’s it leaned more then than it does now.
We were too broke and too tired to do everything in the area, but we decided to go to the old cemetery cause Tara has studied the frescos in a class and wanted to see them in person. The cemetery is considered to be one of the prettiest in the world- and it is. Some of the frescoes were destroyed in World War II, but many remain and are vibrant and stunning. You walk across the graves and the rectangular building is lined with giant statues and monuments. In the center there is a huge courtyard with rose bushes.
We made it back to the train station and caught the correct train back to Padova – and yes we did check about 10 times.