Towering Attraction
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is an iconic image of Italy, a picture that sums up the country and its tourist attractions. It is known throughout the world. So it was with a great sense of anticipation that I drove into the small town of Pisa with some friends, eager to see this great building.
I paid for this trip through English teaching jobs. One contract had come to an end, so I was ready for a break before embarking on another job. My friends, with permanent jobs, just took some annual leave for our trip to Italy.
Pisa is in Tuscany, sometimes called Chianti-shire because of the number of British people who buy holiday homes there. The region more than lives up to its reputation. It was quite simply stunningly beautiful, green, luscious, exotic-seeming to us Brits, with desperately cute villages and buildings tucked away in the hills. Many of the hills and mountains are terraced into olive orchards, and the scent of the rich fruits spreads both uphill and downhill.
As we drove into Pisa we were all craning our necks for our first glimpse of the Leaning Tower. We had some problems finding a parking space because we thought we were on the south side of the River Arno, which runs through the city, when actually we were already on the north side. Having corrected that mistake, we headed for a big car park marked on the map as being near the Leaning Tower. Eventually we navigated into that, and piled out of the car.
The first thing to cope with was buying a parking ticket. So we all dutifully looked around for a machine. Then one of us gasped, and pointed. We looked up. And there is was, just across the road from the car park, a charming, newly cleaned, white, medieval tower. And yes, it most definitely leaned. Even better than the pictures.
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