Tower of Pisa (Pisa, Italy, December 1989)

During our year in Brussels, we drove down to Italy twice. The second, shorter trip, was to Pisa, where I had a conference, and then to Florence, where David had already gone on a field trip. The kids' school was supposed to have had an "American Curriculum". I guess I was sick the day my class went to Florence.

Anyway, there is some sense in which the kids and I were the last tourists on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, before it was closed for 12 years, while they made sure it didn't topple over (details in the Wikipedia article linked). We climbed the tower, and were the last tourists that day; they actually cleared us off the tower to close it. It then was closed to the public after that day. People were allowed on for some ceremonial reasons after that, and it didn't really close for a month, but I believe we were the last ones allowed before the tourist visits were finished.

The Davises had warned us that it was terrifying to bring your children onto it, and boy were they right. The marble floors were like sheets of ice, and there was only a simple thin rail, about 40 inches off the floor, to grab before you fell to your death. And a plenty sharp pitch. I really kept them close, and to the inside. When the tower was stabilized, they actually brought it back about 1/3 of the way towards the vertical, so we climbed it at its very leaningest.