It is all about the angles

My kids didn't believe me that The Leaning Tower of Pisa was located in Pisa, Italy. They insisted that it was in Rome. It didn't matter what we said. I even checked out a book from the local library and read it to them every night for a week at bedtime. My mom, having climbed the 296 steps, tried telling them it was in Pisa. No luck. According to my children, it was in Rome. So what did we do? We took them to Pisa and made them walk around The Tower in 104 degree weather and then rubbed their noses in it. It felt great.

I have to admit that at first I was disappointed in the "leaning" of the tower. I thought it would be much more noticeable. We tried to take the famous picture where you hold up the tower with your hands, but because "the lean" was barely noticeable the pictures were not that impressive. The tower was also much smaller than I anticipated. I imagined it being a massive structure. It is more squat than massive.

Since it was so hot, everyone was thirsty and tired. Aidan sat on the lawn near The Tower and refused to move. He also refused to have his picture taken. Nancy (my MIL) and I dumped the boys at a cafe and decided to go shopping. We walked along souvenir row, and I cursed myself for not bringing some sort of rag to mop the massive amount of sweat from my face. At one point, I happened to look back at The Tower and this time it was really leaning! We spent all of our time standing too close to it to really see it lean! Damn. Lesson Learned.