Pisa

The tower probably should have fallen by now.  But those stubborn Italians (and they are stubborn - the tower was obviously leaning within 5 years of the starting construction on it, but they kept building anyway) put about 30 million dollars of work into it throughout the 1990's (and had to close it down completely for safety reasons) and today it is deemed safe enough for tourists to pay an exorbitant amount of money to climb the famous tower and experience it's famous lean.  As you can see, another Beautiful Day. 

 Up the crooked stairs.

 On the bell platform - not quite at the top.

 From the top, looking down at the duomo (cathedral) and baptistery.  The major Italian city states had a lot of money - so much so that they decided to build three buildings where in many places one would suffice.  The baptistery was a separate building so that people could be baptized before entering the cathedral (instead of having the baptismal font in the cathedral - just following the rules), and the bell tower was a separate building just to show that they had enough money to have a separate building whose only purpose was to house the bells that would call the townspeople to mass.

 Mr. Johnson contemplates the Campo dei Miracoli (the field of miracles). 

 Pre-booked groups can only ascend the tower 10 at a time - here's my group.

 Posing at the high point of the tower.

 Victoria and Julia on their way down.

 At the base of the tower.

 Gabe does the "counting dance".  Or something.

This Japanese couple was on the "keep off of grass" area surround the duomo the entire time our group was here - taking picture after picture.  Fun.