Leaning Tower of Pisa

My friends and I decided to take an afternoon trip out to Pisa, on the western coast of Tuscany. Some of our other friends had already made the trip out there, and from their accounts, we could finish the sightseeing in one afternoon, freeing up our limited weekends.

We took a 1:00PM train from the SMN station, with an expected arrival time of 2:00PM. As the train departed, we got to see the rural areas of Tuscany. At each stop, the houses and buildings became more distant. The train trip took much longer than expected, as we arrived at 3:00PM.

At the Pisa station, we found a map of the town. The Leaning Tower was directly on the other side of the town, about 20 minutes away. We walked slowly though the heart of Pisa, noticing the modern stores such as Game Stop and Forever 21 which seemed out of place for a historical town.

When we arrived at the tower, I was surprised at how small the tower was. I always imagined it to be much grander and taller, but it was around the height of an office building in Long Island City. The base was intricately designed with sculptures and the columns were decorated with leaves and scrolls. I loved the clean lines of the tower, with its symmetric columns and arches. I also did not see just how much the tower was leaning until I walked around to the other side. The tower looked to be about 5 or 10 degrees off-center, which took me by surprise. The photos do not accurately depict just how slanted the tower seems in person. We stayed until the sun started to set, which seems to be a pattern with us, as the sights look so majestic with the setting sun as a background.