Cindybelle's Bella Notte TR COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 10/19 With Prices! - Page 14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Called the "Camposanto Monumentale" (or "monument cemetery" or literally translated as "holy field"), this structure is believed to have been built around a load of sacred soil from Golgotha during the Fourth Crusade (12th century) by the Archbishop of Pisa. The burial ground lies over the ruins of the old baptistery of Santa Reparata, the church that once stood where the Cathedral now stands. Some refer to this monument cemetery as the Camposanto Vechhio ("old cemetery") to differentiate it from the urban cemetery on the other side of Pisa.
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ha ha ha...you crack me up....did i pose for that...ha ha ha. well,,,,hmmmm,,,,since i believe in reincarnation, perhaps it WAS me in a past life. oh, i am getting so excited. i am starting another little jar for italy money...gotta go out and find an appropriate one. and i am excited super dave wants to join us...and princess sharon and chezp and all the other pps here...what a trip we will have...oh let's do it...pleeeeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeeee......you and cheryl can be "the guides"....
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More amazing pictures Cindy. The Cemetery Museum looks really intersting as well (this might be a strange leftover obsession as I worked in the Funeral Supply industry for 7 years...LOL)
Amazing colors in the Cathedral...everything is just beautiful.
Oh wow, the Cemetery Museum looks quite something. Maybe if we do go back to that part of Italy (and I hope to! ) then we will return to Pisa on your recommendation...
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Dave, how wonderful to hear from you! As soon as I read "Hotel Quirinale," I thought, "Hey, didn't we walk past that every time we went from Hotel Nerva to the Colosseum?" That is TOO coincidental!
And be grateful I DIDN'T tell you about my plans for Italy when I met you in May -- I would have bugged you to death -- especially now that I know you've been on one of Rick Steves' "Through the Back Door" tours. I'm curious to hear more about that sometime.
And consider yourself "on board" if we ever get a PP group together for a trip to Italia!
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That certainly is a coincidence. To get to the Roman Forum from my hotel, you basically went a few blocks south, take a left and it's there on the right and the Colosseum just past that. It was a lovely hotel. My first experience in Europe.
Definitely plan to share my Rick Steve's tour experience with you. Maybe another time as soon as you wind down from Italy. That could take a while! Good thing you didn't ask me about Italy while in WDW, otherwise we would have gone on Tower of Terror 15 times instead of 20!
I also have an account on Digital Photo Printing, Free Online Photo Albums & Digital Photo Sharing - Snapfish: too. In fact my Italy photos are over there. Made a few albums of them. Have yet to finish though. All the photos are there, but not the captions. This gives me a reason to finish them. It's about 2/3 done. When I do,finish, I'll PM you. Looking forward to more of the TR. Especially, Venice as I was there for a couple days for a pre-stay before my Rick Steves tour.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Hey Cindy,I guess the National museums here can't compare with all you have seen in Italy .They were and are something to behold .Wish I could afford to go on the Cindybelle guided tour of Italy.
Have fun if it happens.
After touring the Cemetery Museum, the Cathedral, and the Baptistery, we had a late lunch at Ristorante Lastri, which was down a narrow street from the Cathedral. Sandwiches and salads – good stuff! (Which was another pleasant surprise -- we'd assumed that the food in this touristy area wouldn't be that tasty -- but this place was yummy!)
By the way, while you can save money in Italy by eating your meals standing up at the bar, we ALWAYS were happy to pay an extra Euro to sit at a table and relax.
How was the food? We all liked it -- my salad was especially good, with walnuts and luscious tomatoes & pineapple, along with the usual olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.
And we were used to paying for water by this point, and were glad to have it.
Now, on with our show. When you buy your tickets for the Leaning Tower climb in the morning, you're given an entry time -- ours was for 15:00 (3:00 p.m.) By the time we finished our late lunch, it was about 2:30 -- so we headed over to the big LT to wait for our appointed time.
And yes, it's really leaning.
Climbing was a surreal experience, with the uneven and worn marble steps, which at times made us “feel the lean” as our brains told us gravity was pushing us "down" and yet we felt ourselves falling "left" or "right" into the wall. Then we enjoyed great views from the top. Of course, we all took lots of photos before attendants told us our time was up and we had to climb back down so the next group could come up.
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It is a gorgeous structure. And yes, the sky was really this blue while we were there.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa (orre pendente di Pisa) or simply The Tower of Pisa (La Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the Cathedral. Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction. The tower presently leans to the southwest.
The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the highest side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons. The tower has 296 steps (and we felt every one of them); the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) from where it would stand if the tower were perfectly vertical.
The Tower of Pisa was a work of art, performed in three stages over a period of about 177 years. Construction of the first floor of the white marble campanile began in 1173, a period of military success and prosperity. This first floor is a blind arcade articulated by engaged columns with classical Corinthian capitals.
The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the third floor in 1178. This was due to a mere three-meter foundation, set in weak, unstable subsoil, a design that was flawed from the beginning. Construction was subsequently halted for almost a century, because Pisa was constantly engaged in battles with Genoa, Lucca, and Firenze. This allowed time for the underlying soil to settle. Otherwise, the tower would almost certainly have toppled. In 1198, clocks were temporarily installed on the third floor of the unfinished construction.
In 1272, construction resumed under Giovvani dei Simone, architect of the Camposanto (cemetery museum). In an effort to compensate for the tilt, the engineers built upper floors with one side taller than the other. This made the tower begin to lean in the other direction. Because of this, the tower is actually curved. Construction was halted again in 1284, when the Pisans were defeated by the Genoans in the Battle of Meloria.
The seventh floor was completed in 1319. The bell-chamber was not finally added until 1372. It was built by Tomaaso di Andrea Pisano, who succeeded in harmonizing the Gothic elements of the bell-chamber with the Romanesque style of the tower. There are seven bells, one for each note of the musical major scale. The largest one was installed in 1655.
After a phase (1990-2001) of structural strengthening, the tower is currently undergoing gradual surface restoration, in order to repair visual damage, mostly corrosion and blackening. (See photo below.) These are particularly strong due to the tower's age and to its particular exposure to wind and rain.
Here's a cool look at the marble steps going down from the roof:
Cheryl, we could see for miles from up there. Simply a gorgeous, gorgeous day.
We got to walk around the bells -- that's Paul looking pensive below.
Of course, Rick had to get up REALLY close and threaten to sound the biggest bell of all.
Now you see why he's so right for me!
Here you can get a better understanding of the Cathedral's size. At the top left you see the separate Baptistery building, and to the far right of the Cathedral you see the U-shaped Cemetery Museum we'd toured earlier.
Of course, there's the obligatory shot of the Leaning Tower's shadow below.
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Maybe if we do go back to that part of Italy (and I hope to! 
Good thing you didn't ask me about Italy while in WDW, otherwise we would have gone on Tower of Terror 15 times instead of 20! 
Laurie A. Malinowski(LAMs)
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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