The cock-up at Pisa

In building the world's most famous bell tower, someone stuffed up royally. But if they hadn't, would anyone bother visiting Pisa?

Against all advice, after leaving the Cinque Terre, we went to Pisa for the night. From what I read, the consensus on Pisa seemed to be “by all means visit, but don’t bother staying”. After 24 hours in the city, I’d agree – almost.

We caught the train from Riomaggiore to Pisa in the morning and arrived at our hotel (just a quick walk from the station) before lunch. Armed with a map and a warning from the woman at the desk that the tower was “a long walk to the other side of town” we set out. Much earlier than expected, while Mum was about the check a street sign and consult the map, I noticed the iconic tower to our left.



I love Lonely Planet’s description of the Leaning Tower of Pisa as the world’s most famous “cock-up”. For those who don’t know, the tower leans the way it does because of a problem with the foundations. Weeeeee, over she went. Not all at once. Just little by little. It reached nearly 4.5m off balance before some works took it back 40cm or so. It sits at an angle of about 4 degrees.



On this hot June day, the grounds surrounding the tower were packed. There’s one grass section in front of it that seems to be the setting for the stock-standard “look at me leaning on the Leaning Tower” photo. A good dose of originality would go a long way – but I’ll ramble about that in coming days. There are other patches of grass, which, despite the signage, were also filled with people. That was until a guard with a whistle kicked them off.

If you look up at the tower at the right angle and at the right time, the moving clouds behind give the impression the tower is moving. My heart skipped the first time I noticed it. It’s eerie.

I looked at all the people – and there were a lot – and wondered would anybody be interested in this bell tower if it had all gone to plan? After spending the rest of the day exploring Pisa by bus and foot I came to the conclusion that Pisa, let alone the tower, would have seen much tourist traffic otherwise.

Pisa really doesn’t have much to offer. Fair call, I didn’t spend time delving, but on the surface there wasn’t anything that left me wanting more. We spent a long time trying to track down the only hop-on/hop-off bus, which revealed little else of interest. However, the main shopping street is filled with an extraordinary number of swimwear shops.

Dinner was at a restaurant that served aperitivo. It's a common Italian custom – order a drink and access to a buffet of yummy snacks. In this case the charge was five euro plus my drink. I had the choice of a pasta salad, pizza, baguette, some sort of seafood rice dish, hard-boiled eggs with a pesto-like topping and more. It was a big step up from what such a deal would involve in Australia. There I would have ended up with the heated contents of a frozen packet labelled “Chinese speciality snacks”. There might be pizza too, but that wouldn’t be Italian pizza – big difference.



After dinner, for lack of anything better to do, we walked back to the Tower. Gone were the crowds, the souvenir peddlers and the sun. While Pisa itself might not warrant an overnight stay, seeing the Leaning Tower with only a handful of people around (and not one poser telling their photographer that “you can move the camera too”) was worth it.