World

Reopened Tower Leans A Little Less

December 15, 2001 / 10:55 AM EST / AP

Pisa's Leaning Tower still tilts after its multibillion dollar realigning renovation, but that only delighted tourists who were allowed up its dizzying staircase for the first time in over a decade Saturday.

Â"I thought it was amazing and at the same time frightening!Â" marveled Richard Colbourne, a New York-based graphic designer who was among the first to climb the 293 spiral stairs to the top and back down again. Â"I still have a headache!Â"

Pisa authorities reopened the bell tower to the public with a relatively low-key ceremony — in deference, they said, to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks — and even picked passers-by to make the inaugural climb up the eight stories.

Â"I knew it was opening today, but I couldn't imagine I would be so lucky,Â" said one of the randomly chosen first-climbers, Alfredo Bianchi of Milan, as he took in the view of Pisa's cathedral, the red-roofed Tuscan city and rolling hills in the distance. "You can't explain what it feels like, you have to try it for yourself!" he added.

Others had to wait in line after the tower opened to the general public, but that didn't seem to bother Bob Roth, of Loveland, Colorado, who took his daughter, son and two nieces up to the top.

Â"It was much more spectacular than I thought it would be.Â" he said. But he too was feeling the effects: Â"I felt dizzy going up and I still feel dizzy after coming down.Â"

Architect Bonanno Pisano began construction on the 190-foot high tower in 1173 to celebrate the glory of Pisa, in those years a wealthy maritime republic.

The soil underneath its foundations began sinking before workers completed the third level, starting its centuries-long famous tilt that prompted Mark Twain to once call the monument Â"the strangest structure the world has any knowledge of.Â"

The builders forged ahead, however, completing it in 1360.

By 1990, the tilt had worsened to such a degree that the tower was closed and an ambitious project to shave off some of the lean — at first regarded with some skepticism — was launched.

Â"Many Pisans were saying: 'We'll never be able to go back up again,Â"' recalled Pier Francesco Pacini, the head of the committee in charge of the monument. Â"Today is a very important day.Â"

The renovation included attaching a pair of steel Â"suspendersÂ" to the tower, and then excavating soil under its foundations to try to realign it. The tower's seven bronze bells were stilled for fear that their vibrations would threaten the tower's stability.

Over the course of the renovation, engineers shaved 17 inches off the tower's 1990 lean and guided the monument back to where it was in 1838. The difference is not visible to the naked eye.

The tower now leans 13.5 feet off the perpendicular. Officials said it would take almost three centuries for the tower to go back to the lilt it had in 1990.

However, the days of unlimited visitors filling the monument's 293-step staircase are over. Guided tours of about 40 miutes for groups of up to 30 people will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Â"The tower has recovered, but like elderly people it needs treatment,Â" said Michele Jamiolkowski, the head of the $27 million project.

Jamiolkowski said a small committee of people would still monitor the tower's slant and said that the next step — restoring its marble work — is necessary to keep the monument in good shape.

Officials have estimated the marble restoration would cost 4.3 million, and said they intend to press the government to finance it.

Since being closed to tourists, only a handful of people have been inside the tower, which is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Among them was British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who often vacations in Tuscany, and U.S. first lady Laura Bush, who during a visit last summer struck the typical tourist pose, standing beside the leaning monument pretending to hold it up.