We were in Pisa for approximately 3 hours: just long enough to check the ‘Leaning Tower’ box.

When I was in high school, my physics teacher had some health issues which required him to miss a day of class a week for a few weeks. Whether on his suggestion or their own initiative, our substitute teachers showed us the same video of the Leaning Tower of Pisa every time he was out. So, at seventeen, I was the US expert on the slope of the tower’s lean and its original construction. Sadly, a dozen years later, this knowledge is long gone.

Online guides claimed that there wasn’t much reason to visit the city aside from this infamous structure, so we dropped our bags at the train station and trekked on. The station is about a twenty-five minute walk from the tourist attraction, with plenty of interesting things along the way. For example, there was a tiny little church on one side of the river running through town, which looked like a mini Milan Duomo. The unusual part was that there was almost nothing around it, other than some garbage rolling past like a tumbleweed.

As we finally walked up to the Tower, we realized that it leans even more than it seems to in photos. This is the closest I could come to showing how angled it is. From up close, we could see people touring an overlook in the building, and even brave B said he’d opt out. It really does look like it would tip over if all of those tourists gathered on the leaning side of the overlook.

A few other surprises:

1. I always thought that it was a random tower, originally housing a sentry station or government building or something. But it turns out to be the campanile, or tower that is next to a Duomo/church, just like the one we climbed in Florence and saw in Milan. I actually found the church and its chapel to be more interesting. The main church building featured gargoyles in varying animal shapes, and even ships carved into the marble that seemed to be climbing up the church. Almost none of the tourists were paying any mind to the other buildings. Our only complaint was that even though the ticket to get into the church was free, to get it required queuing on the other side of the large square. Given the direct sunlight and the tourist-induced claustrophobia of the area, we decided to leave instead.
2. B was heartened by the fact that most people seemed to be holding it up, not knocking it down. I was mildly annoyed by the complete lack of consideration of many of them. (I mean, if you spend ten minutes setting up your own shot and shooing everyone away to get it, why would you then turn around and stroll through lots of others’ shots?) Anyway, I think this was the largest concentration of tourists in one small place.
3. B always thought the tower was in the middle of nowhere, since so many pictures only show grass and sky. While the church and chapel, along with a museum and another building, are nearby, there is plenty of green space directly around the tower. Though it wasn’t its original purpose, this lawn is perfect for the legion of tourists posing as the Tower’s saviors. But the surprising thing for B was approaching it from city streets and seeing it standing up among the other buildings; that was a view he had never seen before.

Which is why we promptly escaped. Thank you Pisa for the passable gelato and pleasant walk, but your tourist throngs were a bit much for me.