This morning I finished a great visit to Pisa, capped off with a trip to the Leaning Tower last night amid an electrical storm. Talk about an adventure! All day it had been drizzly and periodically raining, and the earliest assigned time I could get to go to the top of the Tower was at 8:30 pm, at which time Pisa is beginning to get a little dark but before night truly falls. I finished an early dinner around 7:45, noticed that it had started raining in earnest, and hurried to the Tower. By the time I made it there, about 15 minutes later, I was soaked to the skin and started noticing lightning strikes off in the mountains outside town.
Now would seem to be an appropriate time to point out that the Tower stands more than 220 feet tall. And it's situated in an open field with a cathedral on one side an low buildings on every other side. Not only is it tall and exposed, but it's a tough climb to the top, up a couple of hundred stone stairs built in the 1300s which are unevenly worn away and very slippery when wet. There is a ferocious crosswind at the top. And there are narrow windows cut into the Tower that allow gusts of wind and sheets of rain to soak the stairs. Heh heh heh.
You can tell the Americans in a crowd around here, because we presume that organizations do their best to minimize risk to life and limb. Silly Americans. One of the dads with several kids in tow asked (in an identifiably American accent) whether we would be allowed to go to the top of the Tower with the lightning now striking in a circle around the Tower. His tone suggested that he was ready for the answer, "Hell no--are you CRAZY?!" Instead, the plucky Italian lady running the bag check gave him a look and didn't hesitate for a second: "Rain, we go up! Lightning, we go up! Snow, we go up! Ice, we go up!" You could see everybody doing the same mental calculus: "Well, I'm only here for one more day, the ticket cost 15 euros which I have to eat if I don't go up, and when am I going to get a chance to do this again? We PROBABLY won't die, right?" We exchanged worried glances, shrugged, took a deep breath, and ran for the Tower to start the ascent. The guards who were supposed to be "guiding" the tour were smart enough to stay on solid ground but gave us the go-ahead to head on up and check things out. Way to inspire confidence, guys.
We rushed up the narrow spiral staircase single file, getting blasted and drenched each time we passed the windows, and before long we hit a landing not far from the top. It really felt like the wind was trying to push us off the Tower, and, you know, it's not the most stable walking surface. It LEANS, remember. So we weren't walking on a flat surface, it was a fairly steep tilt up- or downhill. And the fence holding us on was a little lower than waist high on me, and I'm short. I wasn't at all convinced that if I stumbled and the wind caught me, the fence would do its job.
On a nice day, it would have been an ideal place to stop and take photos: the mountains surrounding the town were in plain sight (prettier when they are not cowering beneath angry clouds) along with the rolling golden brown foothills and all the red tile roofs of town. And a gorgeous river, by the way, too. However, in the entire group of 15 of us, all staggering under the weight of digital SLR camera bags and looking ridiculous under the circumstances, not one person attempted to snap a picture. That is how bad it was. We all soldiered on to the top of the Tower, where the wind was absolutely nuts, stayed at the top for about 30 seconds, glimpsed a few more lightning strikes, heard the thunder, got really wet, and ran back downstairs for our lives. I think I took three pictures before fleeing. It was like a Godzilla movie.
My internet connection is spotty in my hotel tonight (wi-fi is down and they were kind enough to let me use the front desk computer for a few minutes), but I'll post the pics when I can get back on wifi. They are singularly unimpressive but funny in their own way, I guess. In any case, everyone safely made it to the bottom. Nobody got struck by lightning. Nobody got blown off the top. Nobody slipped on the stairs and went head over heels down the stairs. Relief!
This morning, the sun was shining and I took the train to Lucca, a little town not far from Pisa. I spent a blissful afternoon riding a rented bike on the massive city wall that encircles the town, capped off by a slab of cheesecake and a cappucino. I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a Wednesday afternoon (Is it Wednesday or Tuesday? I love that I can't remember!!!). :)
No comments:
Post a Comment