There are some locations that when you say its name, everybody envisions a picture of it in their mind. That is so the case when one mentions the city of Pisa. An image of the famous leaning tower of Pisa comes to mind almost immediately when the city is mentioned. A few years back, we had the opportunity to spend an afternoon there and it was as magnificent as expected.
The tower lies behind the Pisa Cathedral on the Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracle). The tower is actually the free standing campanile (bell tower) of the cathedral. The construction of the buildings is marble. The tower was flawed from the beginning, with a foundation that was not sufficient to support the weight of the marble. Rather than rebuild the lower floors, engineers of the time concocted a scheme where the upper floors were built with one side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is actually curved.