When you arrive in Pisa, make your way to the Piazza de Duomo, in the heart of the city. Here, in the Square of Miracles, you find the tower as well as its cathedral, walled cemetery and the ornate Baptistry of St. John.
Choose your camera angles to photograph the tower alone or in view of these other attractions. Then, moving closer to the tower, stroll around it, remembering to look upward to appreciate its artistry and architecture in carved arches, doorways and crafted base. Marvel at the physics of this well-know structure.
Once your external view is satisfied, make your way inside the tower to climb the 294 stairs to the top of the tower and enjoy the view of the city. Only once closed from 1990 to 2001 for weight reduction, visitors maintain climbing the tower is a must-do activity in Pisa.
If traveling to Pisa is not your cup of tea, you may still want to understand the clever craftsmanship of the Leaning Tower. Building a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or drawing it from photographs will give you a sense of its complex architecture. For the more mathematically inclined, imagine that you are the chief engineer of Pisa. Look up height and length measurements and the weight of the tower in order to design a formula for straightening the tower. Those who enjoy foreign languages and community activities might draft and perform a script of how the builders and civic leaders explained to the city the benefits of a strange sight in their hometown.
Research the key people involved in the tower's construction. Put together a timeline of significant dates in the tower's history. Imagine you were traveling back in time to meet one of these people at one of these dates. Write a list of questions that you might ask to help you better grasp the idea behind the tower and what happened when it started to sink.
Finally, the most hands-on activity is to build a different kind of Leaning Tower model---one you can eat! Consider waffles and toothpicks or marshmallows as building materials. Explore the challenges of building on a flat surface like a table compared to in a bowl of sand. This will give you some firsthand ideas of the challenges that occurred for the builders and deepen your appreciation of this well-known world monument.
