The Leaning Tower Of Pisa

TigerBlog told you yesterday that he had adventure planned. 

The title and the photo certainly give away the destination, which was just amazing. Ah, but the journey? That was simply a whole lot of fun. 

For starters, the Leaning Tower of Pisa has always fascinated TigerBlog. How could a tower lean without toppling over, especially after so many centuries? How could he not do everything he could to see it. 

The Tower itself was supposed to be simply a bell tower, next to the Pisa Cathedral. TB assumes that the flood of gelato places within a quarter of a mile of the cathedral and tower were built much later. 

Construction on the bell tower began in 1173. The first level was placed in a foundation of weak soil and as a result almost immediately began to settle unevenly. The project was put on hold in 1178 as the second level was in the process of being added, something that further made the first level settle unevenly. 

So what did they do? They did what anyone would do — they put the project on hold for 100 years. By the time building was restarted, the bottom level had at least firmly settled in its foundation, enabling the remaining layers to be added. The tower was completed in 1372 — still without a gelato place in sight, presumably.  

Now fast forward to the present. When TigerBlog first heard the men's lacrosse team was heading to Italy, he immediately thought of three places he definitely wanted to see: the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Lake Como. When he saw the itinerary, he saw that two of those were covered. 

TB mentioned the trip to the Colosseum the other day. That was extraordinary. The team travels this morning to Lake Como, where there will be a three-hour boat tour — after a five-hour bus ride. 

The Leaning Tower? It was nowhere to be found. That's when TB did some checking. 

He had no idea where Pisa was in relation to any of the tour stops, so he did a search and found that it was relatively close to Montecatini Terme, where the team would be staying for two nights. He then zeroed in on Wednesday morning, when the team would have a morning practice and then spend the afternoon in the city of Lucca. 

TB checked out the train schedule. It was less than an hour to Pisa and only 22 minutes back to Lucca, where he would meet the team before its bike trip around the city. Head to Pisa. Quick selfie in front of the tower. Back on the train. Perfect. 

At least in intentions. That's not quite how it worked out. 

He left the hotel around 9:30 for a 10-minute walk to the train station to catch the 10:01 from Montecatini to Lucca, where he'd have to change trains. He gave himself plenty of time, in case he got lost, and arrived with time to spare. Everything was on schedule. He got a croissant and a Coke Zero (he'll go back to eating properly when he gets home) and then walked out onto the platform to wait. 

Then he got a text from Trenitalia, the people operating the train on which TB was booked. Presumably, the company gave little concern to what its name rhymed with in English. What did the text say? The train would be three minutes late. Okay. 10:04. No problem. Then TB checked the time. It was 10:07. Hmmm.

The next text said the train would be nine minutes late. Okay. Again, not a problem. 

If you're looking for a problem, though, look no further than the Montecatini train station, which has one platform and one track. So picture this. You're on a train platform with one track. Trains go one way to Florence and the other way to Lucca. Clearly, multiple trains cannot go through at the same time. Then an announcement came over the PA system, in Italian of course. TB can speak three words of Italian: Prego. Graci. Arrivederci. Okay, four words. Gelato. 

None of those seemed to be part of the announcement. So now what? 

Well, there are all kinds of different languages spoken on that platform. In fact, TB had been wandering up and down trying to figure out what everyone was speaking. That's when he heard English, coming from two different groups with two different dialects. 

Enter the following six new characters to this story: Fabiana, Lajos, Tricia, Geoff, Sandra and Neil. They were the English speakers. And, as it turned out, Fabiana understood enough Italian to have a general sense of what the announcement was: If you're going to Lucca, you're going to be here for a while. 

Fabiana and Tricia are sisters. Lajos is married to Fabiana. Geoff is married to Tricia. They live 20 minutes away from each other in the Victorian port town of Geelong. They are in the final 10 days of what will have been a 2.5 month extended tour through much of Central Europe. Now that sounds like a great retirement. 

Lajos was born in Hungary, but his family fled to Switzerland in 1956 during the Soviet crackdown. Eventually, his father moved them to the place where he would live for all these years. And what did TB think that place was after hearing his accent? 

Manchester. And where was it really? Australia.

This was doubly embarrassing for TB, since those two accents aren't remotely related and because of how much Australian television he's watched. TB made a big comeback by talking about his favorites — Packed to the Rafters, A Place to Call Home, Underbelly, Wentworth, Offspring, as well as a few others. Australian TV. It's a great icebreaker when you're in a delay.  

Finally, the train to Lucca finally made it through, and on everyone got. By now, it was after 11. 

Where do Sandra and Neil fit in? Well, for starters, TigerBlog got their accent correct: Scotland. Second, the Australians were going to spend the day in Lucca. The Scots, like TigerBlog, were changing trains in Lucca to go to Pisa. 

TB was sitting with the Australians for the short ride to Lucca. Here, you can see what everyone looks like:

That's Tricia and Geoff on the left and Fabiana and Lajos on the right. Geoff and Lajos had great hats. 

As the train pulled into Lucca, Neil came from the lower level of the car to tell TB that their connection to Pisa had long left (TB guessed that) and that the next train was delayed for about 90 minutes (he didn't know that). The solution was to stay on the first train to the next station and connect from there. Then, about a minute later, Neil came back to tell TB to get off the train in Lucca and take the bus to Pisa with them. 

Oh, and as an aside, if you're ever traveling by train in Italy (something that made TB think of "Von Ryan's Express" and Frank Sinatra), it appears they don't check for tickets. They assume you bought them. It's really the honor system, or at least it was yesterday. 

TB said goodbye to the Australians, though he got their contact info to possibly meet up later in the day when TB was back in Lucca. Now he, Sandra and Neil were standing in front of the train station. Neil was trying to figure out where the bus station was, so TB and Sandra went back inside to ask. The young man behind the counter doesn't speak much English, but he did manage to get out "there are a lot of bus stations" while shaking his head no. 

TB then found out it would be 55 euros to get from the Lucca train station to the Leaning Tower of Pisa via taxi, so the two Scots and TB headed off for about a 30-minute drive to get there. TB would find out that they were flying home from Pisa early this morning. Neil was in the oil/gas business. Sandra was a nurse. They're both retired as well. 

As they entered the town of Pisa, the cab turned down a small side street and then turned to the right. There, staring at everyone, was the Leaning Tower. Much like seeing the Colosseum for the first time Monday, the Tower was mesmerizing. It was like looking at the world's largest painting, only it was real. 

What did TB say when he first saw it? "Woah." What did Sandra say? "Woah."And then also this: "Neil, look this way." 

Here they are, by the way:

This is also where they went their own way, heading to their hotel in town to check in before heading to the tower. TB went the other way, straight to the grounds of the Pisa Cathedral and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sandra reported in later that their 10-minute walk to their hotel took 45 minutes instead. It was a day of waiting for them. 

TB, for his part, was drawn to the tower as if it were magnetic. He couldn't stop staring at it. Maybe part of it was the white of the building against the sky behind it. Or maybe it's just that, you know, the tower is leaning and has been for more than 600 years. 

He began to take pictures of it from every direction. He got his selfie. He got someone to take his photo from a further distance to get the whole tower in it and to be able to see "Princeton Field Hockey" on his shirt.  

What he didn't do was immediately turn and leave to get back on the train. He admired the tower for longer than he thought he would. He thought about walking up the nearly 300 steps to the top but then thought that this was something you wanted to look up to, not look down from. Also, you know, 300 steps. 

And what is something that is pretty commonplace for visitors to the tower? Taking a picture where they appear to be holding it up. Cute, right? Way played out? Also right. TB refused to do it, so he instead took a few pictures of people who were. He could have taken 100 of them.  

 C'mon. Be original. Take a picture where you appear to be catching it while it tumbles. 

Anyway, he then walked around the small town of Pisa, stopping for pizza and, okay, gelato. Because it had taken him so long to get there, he knew he was going to miss the bike tour, but that was okay. The experience of seeing the tower was overwhelming. 

Eventually, he left to head to Lucca. Now the task was finding the Pisa train station, which is near the University of Pisa. As such, the area was flooded with young people, none of whom are all that good at directing to a train station. TB walked way out of the way before he saw a woman around 35 or so, a non-student he figured, and asked her if she knew where the train station was. Her English wasn't great, but TB heard her say "I'm going to the train station too." Or maybe "get away from me weirdo." 

TB figured it was the first one, so he followed her. She must have been late for her train, because she was nearly sprinting. Either that, or she thought TB was following her and was trying to lose her. Since she didn't turn around and pepper spray him, he thought it was okay. 

Then it was back on the train, which was arriving just as TB arrived. The Pisa station has multiple tracks, by the way. 

TigerBlog doesn't have a bucket list per se, but he always wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And now he had. And he was really awed by it.  

In a blink he was back in Lucca. He texted Fabiana to see where they were, and she sent him back a text with their location pinned. It was a 12-minute walk from the train station to where they were sitting. As he walked up, there they were, eating a late lunch or early dinner. They smiled when they saw him approach. 

It was a day to see something spectacular, something that will stay with him forever. And it was a day of adventure, and of new friendships.  

"Look who it is," TB said as he sat down with them. "The good friends from Manchester."