136_3601.JPG .This is the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It has 303 steps and 8 stories.  It took 200 years to build because people kept stopping because of the leaning.  They started on August 9, 1173.  The third floor had just been completed after five years when it first started to lean, so they stopped.  About a hundred years later, they started again, and built to the seventh floor but then they stopped because it was leaning even more.  Then about a hundred years later, they started the eighth floor and finally finished it. 

137_3705.JPG The tower is leaning only 5 1/2 degrees but it sure seems like more!  When my parents last visited it 13 years ago, you couldn't go up it because they were afraid it was going to fall over.  But since then they've stabilized it with some construction under ground, so it's safe to go up now.

137_3706.JPG We're standing just far enough away so that if the tower falls (which it won't), it will miss us.

136_3604.JPG I decided to straighten it up for them.  They weren't as happy about it as I thought they would be.  Tourism is a big business here. 

136_3607.JPG Here we are at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Behind me is a lot of flat, mooshy, gooshy farm land.  Pisa is in a river valley.  There isn't a leaning tower of Genoa, because Genoa has hard, rocky ground! 

136_3608.JPG Looking down from the top of the L.T.P.  My Mom is holding the brown umbrella and my youngest sister is next to her wearing the green raincoat.  You have to be eight years old to be allowed to climb the tower. 

136_3609_2.JPG This is also looking down from the top of the L.T.P. onto the cathedral.  The Italian word for cathedral is "il duomo".  You can still see my Mom and my youngest sister. 

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