The Leaning Tower of Pisa is located on the Piazza della Miracola, just north of Pisa, and on 16 May 2019, a couple of good friends and I took a tour bus from Livorno for €20 to Pisa. The bus ride took about an hour and on the way we enjoyed the Tuscan countryside, the greenery, the meadows and the flowers in full bloom, all of which made one look forward to the city of Pisa.
The bus was full of people from all over the world and although they spoke different languages, it was clear from the upturned corners of their mouths that everyone was having a good time. The stewardess taught us simple Italian through a microphone and there was a lot of laughter along the way.
Forty minutes into the bus journey, someone suddenly shouted, “Look, there is the leaning tower”. At the sound of the voice, there were two white buildings, one of them half-tilted, sitting on a green lawn not far away. Middle-aged people excitedly patted their friends on their phones, young people jumped out of their seats, children rubbed their dazed eyes, and people cheered and were excited.
I finally reached my destination, got off the bus and followed the crowd for a ten-minute walk to the main entrance of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. On the way, my friends and I kept exclaiming: “Oh my god! I can’t believe I’m in Italy now”.)
As with any tourist attraction, the place is heavily commercialised. As soon as you emerge from the car park, there are countless friendly vendors selling Pisa souvenirs such as a variety of fridge stickers in the shape of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, mugs, coasters, keychains and T-shirts.
When I passed by a shop, I saw the original made in china instant noodles and felt my mouth watering. But when I looked at the price and calculated the exchange rate, I thought, “Oh my God, 20-odd dollars for a bucket of instant noodles? No, No, No, my friend, I had to swallow my saliva in silence.
Apart from souvenirs, there were also many colourful bags, many of which were branded with big logos such as “LV” and “GUCCI”. In fact, most of the vendors are not locals, but foreigners who come here to work and are forced to make a living, otherwise who would want to be out in the sun!
At the end of the street, there is the main entrance to the scenic spot, and for a moment I couldn’t help but say the classic line of the famous Chinese actress Zhou Xun: “So many people!” The most important thing I saw besides the pagoda was the people.
It is necessary to know a bit about the history of the tower to officially enter a world-class scenic spot.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, built in August 1173, is a freestanding bell tower of the Cathedral of Pisa, Italy, and together with the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Cemetery, they form a group of religious buildings.
There is much debate as to whether the leaning of the tower was the result of a cumulative effect of ground subsidence that could not have been anticipated or avoided during its construction, or whether it was the intentional work of the architects.
What is undeniable is that the city of Pisa and the Leaning Tower of Pisa are each other’s achievements, and that the people of Pisa are proud to have a leaning tower in their hometown that they consider to be on a par with the world’s most famous buildings. They are convinced that the tower is as strong and sturdy as the people of Pisa and that it will never fall down.
To the right of the viewpoint is a very ordinary row of houses
The route is very simple, entering the main entrance on a straight avenue, with a row of ordinary houses on the right hand side and all the buildings on the left.
The first building that comes into view is the Baptistery. It is extremely symmetrical and solemn in appearance, with its iconic Roman columns and the exquisite relief carvings on the walls reflecting the skill of the architects and their pursuit of beauty.
For objective reasons, neither the Baptistery, the Cathedral nor the Leaning Tower were open to visitors that day, so people could only visit from the outside. Nevertheless, visitors from all over the world enjoyed taking pictures of the buildings with their creativity. There was “One hand covering the tower”, “The tower falling down”, “The couple holding the tower up”, “The giant tower with ice cream “There are “Popeye’s Paws”, and some people simply bring their dogs along with them.
I finally managed to get a clear picture of the tower, thanks to the good weather.
Although I don’t know anything about architecture, I felt that the blue sky, white clouds, green grass, flowing crowds and laughter made this solemn church immediately become kind and lovely, like an old man of the century embracing every child who came to visit him, oh no, he didn’t welcome us today, he didn’t even open the door, whoops.
The cathedral from another angle is majestic, with symmetrical Roman columns and a strong Italianate feel.
The curiosity and emotion I had been suppressing, step by step, finally exploded the moment I stood in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I could not help but marvel at the magic of this building, although I could clearly see its tilt, I could also feel its impregnability, no wonder the people of Pisa were confident and proud of it.
Galileo appears at the top of the Leaning Tower. He is holding a 10-pound iron ball in his right hand and a 1-pound iron ball in his left.
The towering Leaning Tower of Pisa, with its endless crowds, imagines how Galileo walked up to the top of the tower amidst the ridicule and suspicion of the people, and confirmed the truth with his experiment without fear of authority. Galileo’s action offended the followers of the Aristotelian school at the University of Pisa, who attacked Galileo for daring to doubt Aristotle and must have been a traitor to the Holy Church, and had Galileo expelled from the University. He was only 25 years old at the time, what courage and steadfastness!
Back to the building itself, the decorative style of the Leaning Tower (bell tower) is inherited from that of the cathedral and baptistery, with walls of marble or limestone in shades of dark and light. The arches with half-exposed square columns, the carved doors in the arcades, the long diamond-shaped lattice flat roofs and the walls above the arcades form a strong contrast between the light and dark sides in the light of the sun, giving the impression that the columns inside the bell tower are quite heavy.
This is an engineering drawing of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, with precise calculations of the various building heights and angles of inclination.
In fact, the bell tower’s bold circular architectural design had already revealed its ingenuity to the world before the severe leaning occurred. The cathedral, baptistery and bell tower echo each other in both colour and form, providing a visual coherence.
Had the tower been vertical instead of inclined, the whole picture might not have been so vivid
The rectangular building on the north side of Piazza della Miraculata, behind the cathedral, is known as the Pisa Cemetery or Cemetery, and is the mausoleum for important figures in the city of Pisa. The entire building is in the shape of a cloister, with 600 carved tombstones and sarcophagi in relief, and the cloisters are decorated with beautiful frescoes. Unfortunately, the cemetery was destroyed in the Second World War, and the frescoes were particularly damaged, but have since been restored to their present state.
The interior of the gallery, with its fine architecture, deep cloisters and crumbling frescoes, has a sense of vicissitude and atmospheric beauty.
A damaged statue of a man called Angelo still remains on the lawn behind the leaning tower, and as there is only an infinite reverence for Galileo in my heart, I did not care much about the origins of this statue.
The north-east corner of the lawn is not too crowded, so you can sit on the grass and admire the buildings and the crowds that come and go through the years, breathe in the fresh air and feel the relaxing Mediterranean sea breeze.
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At this point, the trip to Pisa is drawing to a close and it’s time to wax lyrical.
The best thing about this trip is that it was with a good group of friends, no disagreements and a good time.
Apart from that, we couldn’t have been happier with the reasonably priced and well timed round trip bus ride, which saved us a lot of time. Although it was a bit of a shame that we couldn’t visit all of them, perhaps that’s part of the point of a trip, “no regret is a real regret”.
The last point, and a very, very important one, is that the dream came true.
Coming from a rural background, I learned about the world’s famous Leaning Tower through my primary school textbooks and was intrigued by it. Little did I know that one day I would be standing in front of this leaning tower. Some people may never leave the place where they were born in their lifetime, while others can travel over thousands of mountains and rivers; there are no good or bad experiences. For me, learning about the world through reading is abstract, getting close to it through travel is real, and the combination of the two is perfect.
Reading and travelling are like a pair, they always set off together, taking each other, to more distant places. Because there is knowing, there is feeling, and knowing and feeling makes the journey not just at the level of what the eyes see, but also of what the mind and heart feel.
