The cathedral also tilts, but this time forward as opposed to sideways, and not by very much. (It lists pretty severely in our photo, but that's probably due to Somchai being drunk when he took the photo). The cathedral is older than most in Tuscany, and therefore built in the Romanesque style rather than the flashier Gothic. It also has a heavy Byzantine/Muslim influence due to its early dominance in the global trade sweepstakes. Pisa and Venice were the main trading points between Europe and the East, and while Venice continued as a dominant trader for centuries, Pisa's golden age was pretty short. Challenged by nearby Genoa for command of the seas and by landlocked Florence who coveted Pisa's sea access, Pisa lived on borrowed time. But the death blow came from a traitorous admiral, which makes a great story in an upcoming post, and by nature, when the Arno River silted up, leaving the great port without access to the sea.