How to Climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa
From the train station in Pisa, you can either take a short bus ride or walk for half an hour to Cathedral Square. This collection of buildings dates back to the 1100s and includes a beautiful cathedral and baptistry clad in white marble. But just about everyone ignores them to rush for the bell tower more commonly known as "The Leaning Tower of Pisa."
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Instructions
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Pay for admission at the Cathedral Square ticket booth for €15. (Prices her are accurate as of August 2009, with 1 euro equal to about 1.4 U.S. dollars.) You can also buy a ticket online for €17 two weeks or longer in advance. While advance purchase is more expensive, it's worth it if you'll be visiting during the busy summer season. Tickets are timed for every half hour exactly, and latecomers are not allowed in. Visitors must be over 7 years old, and children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
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Join your group to enter the tower. You only have 30 minutes to visit, with no extensions of time. You cannot take purses or bags of any kind, so check them at the cloakroom outside beforehand. However, you can bring cameras or video recorders with you.
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Tread carefully but firmly onto the spiral steps, which 900 years of visitors have polished to smoothness. There's no danger of falling over, because both sides of the staircase are buttressed by thick walls, but the stairs can be slippery. They can also trigger claustrophobia, especially near the top, where they narrow to barely the width of a human being. With nearly 300 steps to climb, you need to be in good physical shape to try the ascent.
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Enjoy the views from the top two floors (the 7th and 8th levels). Though you will pass many external passages on your way up, you are only allowed to exit at the top. Do not lean beyond the protective railings. Step carefully, or you may slip and fall outside or within the tower.
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Tips & Warnings
Given that you only have a total of 30 minutes at the tower, the faster you climb the stairs, the more time you will have to enjoy the views from the top. It takes about five minutes to ascend if you don't stop to admire the views from the windows along the way. You can visit the other buildings in Cathedral Square by buying separate tickets at the on-site ticket booth. Prices as of 2009 range from €2 for the Cathedral to €15 for a ticket that combines the baptistry, cemetery and two museums. Even if you bought your timed tickets in advance, call before you visit in order to check that the tower isn't closed because of bad weather or last-minute repairs. If these circumstances keep you from visiting at the time of your ticket, you can try to get a refund, but you will probably have more luck moving your ticket to another day.
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- Photo Credit Wikimedia commons under GNU Free Documentation License
