4d
Travel locations with architectural marvels are always a traveler's delight,
Each is unique in its own way & the list is long enough with no end in sight,
Rating comparisons become inevitable as we witness more during our travels,
But that would be sheer travesty of justice, as each marvel has few parallels
Europe, unsurprisingly, is at the top of the bucket list for most travel lovers,
It is toast to a multitude of exotic locations, if one were to go by numbers,
Italy is home to some of the world's famous UNESCO World Heritage sites,
Welcome to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whose popularity has scaled great heights
Pisa, a city in Italy is a short drive from Florence - capital city of Tuscany region,
Initially an important Italian seaport, Pisa's growth thro' trade stands to reason,
Its involvement in periodic military conflicts enabled Pisa to become affluent,
Pisans conveyed their importance through construction of religious monuments
The Tower of Pisa is one of the four buildings that constitutes the cathedral complex,
It is a freestanding bell tower and considered the piazza's crowning glory in the annexe,
Located on the city's main "Miracles Square", it differs from most medieval architecture,
It is symbolic of Italian architectural expertise at its best, with just cause for conjecture
The complex was meant to display treasures brought back from Sicily by adventurers,
The bell tower was configured to be the tallest of its age - a landmark for all travelers,
The name Pisa reportedly originates from the Greek word for "marshy land",
Failure to factor subsoil condition, resulted in construction not going as planned
Provision of a shallow and heavy foundation was apparently a gross oversight,
That the construction would be inevitably doomed, was obvious in hindsight,
The tower began to sink to one side while the second storey was being built,
Adding taller columns and arches to the south side, did little to offset the tilt
By the fourth storey, disparity in the arches to restore balance was to no avail,
Attempts to restore centre of gravity from the third storey added to the travails,
Construction continued to the full eight storeys, with the tilt still in place,
That the tower took 200 years to build and is still standing, is the saving grace!
Visitors can climb to the top of the tower, involving a steep climb of 251 steps,
Climbing the tilted building is heady excitement that requires no mental preps,
The tower has seven bells for divine timekeeping - one for each musical note,
Prudently calling it a miracle of medieval engineering, is a worthy point to note
The tower being one of Italy's signature sights should be of little surprise to one and all,
Imagine the awe of looking at a tilted 58 metre-high tower, appearing to be in free fall,
Leaning a startling 3.9 degrees off the vertical, as if in defiance of all geometrical odds,
The Leaning Tower of Pisa truly lives up to it's name, as if ordained by the gods
The Leaning Tower of Pisa's extraordinary tilt makes it an authentic miracle of statics,
You tend to keep looking back at the tower as you saunter, to savor the imagery magic,
And grapple with a bunch of baffling explanations, wondering how the tower defies gravity,
Whilst shaking the head in disbelief & finally nodding, that the visual treat is indeed a rarity!
Each is unique in its own way & the list is long enough with no end in sight,
Rating comparisons become inevitable as we witness more during our travels,
But that would be sheer travesty of justice, as each marvel has few parallels
Europe, unsurprisingly, is at the top of the bucket list for most travel lovers,
It is toast to a multitude of exotic locations, if one were to go by numbers,
Italy is home to some of the world's famous UNESCO World Heritage sites,
Welcome to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whose popularity has scaled great heights
Pisa, a city in Italy is a short drive from Florence - capital city of Tuscany region,
Initially an important Italian seaport, Pisa's growth thro' trade stands to reason,
Its involvement in periodic military conflicts enabled Pisa to become affluent,
Pisans conveyed their importance through construction of religious monuments
The Tower of Pisa is one of the four buildings that constitutes the cathedral complex,
It is a freestanding bell tower and considered the piazza's crowning glory in the annexe,
Located on the city's main "Miracles Square", it differs from most medieval architecture,
It is symbolic of Italian architectural expertise at its best, with just cause for conjecture
The complex was meant to display treasures brought back from Sicily by adventurers,
The bell tower was configured to be the tallest of its age - a landmark for all travelers,
The name Pisa reportedly originates from the Greek word for "marshy land",
Failure to factor subsoil condition, resulted in construction not going as planned
Provision of a shallow and heavy foundation was apparently a gross oversight,
That the construction would be inevitably doomed, was obvious in hindsight,
The tower began to sink to one side while the second storey was being built,
Adding taller columns and arches to the south side, did little to offset the tilt
By the fourth storey, disparity in the arches to restore balance was to no avail,
Attempts to restore centre of gravity from the third storey added to the travails,
Construction continued to the full eight storeys, with the tilt still in place,
That the tower took 200 years to build and is still standing, is the saving grace!
Visitors can climb to the top of the tower, involving a steep climb of 251 steps,
Climbing the tilted building is heady excitement that requires no mental preps,
The tower has seven bells for divine timekeeping - one for each musical note,
Prudently calling it a miracle of medieval engineering, is a worthy point to note
The tower being one of Italy's signature sights should be of little surprise to one and all,
Imagine the awe of looking at a tilted 58 metre-high tower, appearing to be in free fall,
Leaning a startling 3.9 degrees off the vertical, as if in defiance of all geometrical odds,
The Leaning Tower of Pisa truly lives up to it's name, as if ordained by the gods
The Leaning Tower of Pisa's extraordinary tilt makes it an authentic miracle of statics,
You tend to keep looking back at the tower as you saunter, to savor the imagery magic,
And grapple with a bunch of baffling explanations, wondering how the tower defies gravity,
Whilst shaking the head in disbelief & finally nodding, that the visual treat is indeed a rarity!
