The Balancing Act Resolved; Pisa reopens!
Whew! That was a close one, on this day December 15, 2001 Italy’s iconic leaning Tower of Pisa reopened!
It took 11 years and 27 million dollars to essentially stop the tower from continuing its downward angle in fears that it would topple over altogether. ORRIBILE! The challenge was to stabilize the building while keeping its famous tilt! After all, what would the leaning tower be, if it weren’t leaning!
Where is Pisa you ask and what is this tower? Pisa is located in the famous Tuscany Region of Italy. It’s 50 miles west of Florence and a short six miles from the ocean! Che Bello! The tower is actually a bell tower to the Pisa Cathedral fitted with seven bells. Each bell is for each note of the musical major scale. What’s that? Those are using notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Basically, you can RING-IN a serious tune with these bells!
The construction of the tower began in the early 12th century, and even then it started leaning in the soft marshy soil! To counter the lean, engineers built the top stories a smidge taller, but that made it worse! Miraculously the structure never fell and was completed in 1360.
Up until the 20th century the tower leaned a good 15 feet over. Tourists could walk up to the famous bell tower and experience the lean for themselves. It wasn’t until 1990 that officials closed the building off.
You can still visit the tower today! Although the tickets are limited so purchase it in advance. But if you don’t feel like climbing up the 293 steps to see that iconic Pisa view you can most definitely join the crowd and take one of many hilarious, “holding up Pisa tower” photos! And stay tuned for those seven ringing bells, chiming in as they did more than 600 years ago.