Saturday 6.30.07

Pisa is only 10Km from the Mediterrean Sea and has been an important port city since the 11th century. Beginning in the in the 11th century, Pisa had its greatest development. It won major naval battles, saw the development of several famous monuments and the establishment of several universities.

The thing that makes Pisa most famous is the Piazza dei Miracoli, which contains all the monuments that make Pisa famous; the cathedral, baptistery, and hanging tower. The cathedral and baptistery are impressive structures, both taking over a century each to be completed.

However, the real reason to visit the city of Pisa is to see the Hanging Tower, which is more commonly known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The tower’s construction began in 1174 under the direction of Bonanno Pisano and took over 200 years to complete because of structural problems. By the time the first three stories were complete, the tower had already begun to sink. In 1275, the first attempts were made to counter the tower’s lean. By 1301, the six stories were complete and the tower was completely finished by 1350. The exterior is adorned with multicolored marble.
Besides leaning, the tower is famous because Italian physicist Galileo Galilei conducted his famous experiments with gravity and the relative speed of falling objects from the top of the tower.

On our trip to Pisa, we took a bus, two trains, and another bus to Pisa. Pisa is an interesting place for a short visit. After you see the tower and realize that it really does lean, there isn’t much else to see. There are ton of vendors and we did a lot of shopping there.