Hopefully they amused you a fraction of the amount they amused me. It certainly seemed to amuse the people walking past as I posed for these things.
Pisa itself is a bit of a shithole - there's nothing worth seeing outside of the tower area. It's still worth the trip out though, as it's very damn impressive. The tower juts out at this bizarre angle, and the last thing you'd think to do is climb it. So I did.
As soon as I stepped on the entrance to the tower, I wasn't sure I'd made the right choice. It's really disorientating walking on a slant. What's worse is the spiral staircase going up. Because the tower goes over to one side, the stairs vary in tilt as you walk around them. I found myself bouncing off the walls slightly. We made it up about two thirds of the way before the first viewing platform. I tried to take pictures, but I'm not (too) ashamed to admit I was nervous. When you walk around to the side facing the ground, you just don't feel safe.
After a ten minute stop, it was time to continue. Two more staircases followed leading to a secondary platform with bells under maintenance and some workmen amused at how scared the tourists were. There's some steps going up to the bells, but I didn't make it past one of them. I stuck to the railing, edged my way around and headed for the final staircase.
The last part was the hardest. The staircase wasn't as wide as me, so I had to climb at an angle. Once at the top though, it was worth it. The view was spectacular, and I was proud to be atop the leaning tower of Pisa! I just wasn't able to take a good photo to celebrate this moment.
The way down was almost as stressful as the way up. After I came off the top staircase I realised my feel were level with the top of the railing, and a slip could end rather badly... Like a trooper, though, I made it to the bottom with no drama. It was a slight relief to be back on solid ground.
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