‘Travel Bug took his humans to Tuscany to eat pizza, work out how that building got so squint, and uncover fascinating facts about Pisa…
Travel Bug had a good look around and discovered these fascinating facts about Pisa…
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Travel Bug thought it would be weird if he DIDN’T mention the Leaning Tower. It really wasn’t meant to be famous and was originally built as a bell tower for the Duomo in Piazza de Miracoli.
When the tower was unveiled to the public in 1372, it was already squint. In 1990, a major project got underway to stop the tower from falling over. Because obviously.
Workers moved almost 70 tonnes of earth from beneath the tower and reduced the tilt by almost 45cm. ‘The Slightly Less Leaning Tower of Pisa’ would be a much better name now. That’s bound to catch on, right?
Galileo
Galileo Galilei, the world-renowned scientist was from Pisa. He even has his own airport there!
Galileo, amongst numerous other incredible achievements, was the man to discover that the surface of the moon wasn’t actually flat. He also wrote of the rings around Saturn and confirmed that Venus has similar phases to the movement of the Moon.
Travel Bug has absolutely no idea what any of this means but thinks that Galileo was obviously a very smart human. He’s fairly certain his humans aren’t quite that clever, but he doesn’t say that to their faces.
Pisa Botanic Gardens
Pisa is home to Europe’s first and oldest University Botanic Gardens. Pisa’s Orto botanic were established in the city way back in 1544. That’s so old that Travel Bug wonders how their flowers can still be alive.
TTB x
