Tilt

With a profile that stands five degrees off kilter, the bell tower in Pisa¿s Campo dei Miracaoli -- a.k.a. the Tower of Pisa -- is one of the world¿s great icons. Less well known, however, is how it got that way. Was it shoddy workmanship? Soft ground? Or the brainchild, perhaps, of a hunchback maestro who skewed the campanile to avenge his own condition? This fascinating history reveals the truth behind the Tower of Pisa and how it went from being a flawed yet revolutionary structure...
More Description

With a profile that stands five degrees off kilter, the bell tower in Pisa¿s Campo dei Miracaoli -- a.k.a. the Tower of Pisa -- is one of the world¿s great icons. Less well known, however, is how it got that way. Was it shoddy workmanship? Soft ground? Or the brainchild, perhaps, of a hunchback maestro who skewed the campanile to avenge his own condition? This fascinating history reveals the truth behind the Tower of Pisa and how it went from being a flawed yet revolutionary structure at its completion in 1370 to a paragon of modern tourism -- a journey that witnessed the experiments of Galileo, the Romantic poetry of Byron, the nearly ruinous corrective surgery of Mussolini, and much more. ¿Hugely entertaining and informative.¿ Illustrations.