This is the entire church grounds, where one of the 7 wonders of the world stands. From afar though, the tower looks normal....
Upclose: The tilt of the tower at 5.5 degrees is magnified. The magnificent marble tower in all its beauty. We didn´t go up though, because it would have cost 15€ and we decided to save the money instead.
After my depressing previous post, I´m going to blog about one of our highlights of our Italian trip - The Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Well, great news is that I´m on 3 days of MC! (because I´ve got a slight temperature, cold and sore throat.) Bad news is that my throat is worse than ever. Hah. At least now its the real "normal" sore throat pain. I´m not sure if the "persistent" sore throat pain is still there, but at least I can´t feel it for now. Perhaps its because the "real" pain is much more painful than the "persistent" one....ok, I hope I didn´t confuse you.
Well, my GP is clueless and he recommends me to go back to the ENT (HNO) doctor for a follow-up appointment, citing reasons that a normal sore throat shouldn´t last as long and be as painful as mine. He also gave me a blood test and a mouth swab. In any case, I´ve got until Monday to rest my voice. :)One´s got to learn to be thankful for the good things in life. Hence, the title of this post! And yes, THANK YOU GOD for letting my beanie and I see this amazing work of man´s co-creation with you!
Boy, you´ve got to see it in real-life to realize how much it really slants! Awesome that something which slants at such a degree is still able to stand!
It had to be! Everybody, literally everybody was trying to capture a shot of them supporting the tower...
The one thing that struck me is that this tower was never meant to be slanted! It was built on sand and the original architects (or whatever they called people at that time) had intended for it to be a normal marble structure. However, as it turned out, the sand foundation made the tower unstable and the tower started slanting. Efforts to stabilise the tower proved effective and apparently the tower is safe for the next 300 years.
BUT, the one weakness of this tower turned out to be the biggest strength! Nobody cares about the other just-as-beautiful marble church buildings around it. People only care about THIS tower because it is slanting!!!!
Yeah, call me reflective, but I felt so inspired by this tower. It reminded me that God makes something out of nothing and in our weakness, His strength is made perfect. Yes, I´ll endeavour to remind myself of that fact in the midst of trying times with my throat. I wanna choose to believe and trust that God is in control, He knows what He is doing and He works for good for those who trust Him and are called according to His purpose.
Candid shots of us at the Italian restaurant overlooking the leaning tower. Who looks better with the hat? The prices were surprisingly reasonable for the fact that this is a huge tourist attraction!
Superbly yummy grilled fresh prawns - the only and best I had in Italy. They were cheaper than those in Stuttgart.
Grilled calamari - we got this for 50% off because they mistook our order and served us calamari instead of prawns at the beginning. Hence, we told them that we would take this if they were willing to give it to us at half-price, since we didn´t order it in the first place.
Found out something new about my beanie. He loves fresh coconut! That´s him and his 1€ per piece coconut that he bought from one of the roadside stalls. See even the coconut matches the colour of his T-shirt!
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