I made a couple of wrong turns while leaving Tuscany and realized this pretty quickly. Instead of getting frustrated, I decided to see what tourist attraction I could find on my new alternative route and it hit me that the Tower of Pisa was along my route. I visited this site really quickly back in 2004 and while trying to assume the traditional pose that you see tourist doing, my friend dropped my camera and broke it, hence I had no digital proof that I had been there until again today. Very impressive structure and story that goes behind it.
Leaning Tower of Pisa....not sure what Wikapedia says, but based on the story that I was told today, the tower took 200 years to build. The location is close to the ocean, but it was thought that the soil had good compaction at this particular site--well, they were wrong. The tower soon took it's now to be lean by about 15 feet from it's original position. Modern day engineers determined the Tower would be safe until sometime around the year 2000. But, with the help of a small earthquake in 1997, the Tower of Pisa was determined to be unsafe for walking to the top, and hence in 2001, underwent a complete overhaul in it's structural foundation and was completed and determined to be safe for another century or so. It's uniqueness lies in the fact that all structures in this era were typically square, but the Tower was engineered and built round, commemorating it as one of the first of it's kind.

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9 months ago by
I like the obligatory tourist shot!