70. Pisa

Well, that pretty much finishes up the Florence sightseeing. We stayed in Florence for several more days, using it as a base to explore Tuscany. If you recall, we actually made a trip to Pisa the day before my birthday but I put off these entries so I could keep all the Florence entries together. So moving back in time (and I'm a year younger through the magic of time travel!) we took a train to visit the nearby city of Pisa. But I didn't need to tell you that, since the leaning tower pictured here is just about the most famous landmark in the world. The tower is part of an amazing complex in the Field of Dreams, which also includes the Cathedral, Baptistery, and the Campo Santo. Strangely, these amazing collection is parked in the far reaches of the city rather than in the center, unlike pretty much every other city in Europe. The complex is weird in many other ways as well, but nothing is stranger than this tower. It's pretty clear to everyone except the locals that the tower was built to tilt as some sort of madcap architectural statement. Locals insist it was originally built straight then started to lean, which is clearly not true. In any event, everyone agrees that it is now leaning more than was intended, so it was closed while we were there and surrounded by construction. (I'm pretty sure I read that it's reopened, which is probably a pretty disorienting experience since it's listing pretty heavily.)