Description
Midday in the Piazza dei Miracoli, and the grass is dotted with people in absurd poses. Arms outstretched, palms flat against empty air, they push and prop and lean. Ten-year-old Maxime refuses to do it. It is ridiculous, he says. Everybody does it. Then his grandmother, seventy-four and wearing a large straw hat, plants herself on the lawn and heroically pretends to hold the whole tower up with one finger.
He takes the photo. Then he takes twelve more. By the end of the afternoon he has tried every angle: kicking the tower, leaning on it, eating it like a gelato cone. That picture of his grandmother still hangs on the fridge. This slender tower, with its stacked white arcades tilting at that famous angle, is made for exactly those memories. Give it to a friend back from Italy, a couple after a Tuscan honeymoon, or an architecture student who appreciates a beautiful mistake. On a bookshelf, its lean is wonderfully conspicuous.
Inside and out
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa, tilt and all
- Stands about 3.5″ high on a 1.5″ x 1.5″ footprint
- Lifts open for a tiny Italian souvenir
- A Rochard model
- Hand-painted Limoges porcelain of French make
Tuck a few coins from the trip inside, and let the tower lean on a shelf beside the photo album. It will start the story every time a guest tilts their head.
