Italian towers at a glance
Leaning Tower Pisa: 56m. Lean 3.97°; 294 steps; €18. Book ahead | San Gimignano: 14 surviving towers (of 72 original). Torre Grossa 54m climbable; €9 | Torre Asinelli Bologna: 97.2m; 498 steps; €5 | Torre Garisenda Bologna: 48m. Leans 3.22°; not climbable. Currently under monitoring | Torre del Mangia Siena: 88m. Piazza del Campo; €10
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The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the lean, the twice-saved story, and the restoration
The Torre Pendente di Pisa (Leaning Tower of Pisa, 1173-1372, the campanile of the Pisa Cathedral on Piazza dei Miracoli) leans because the south foundation soil (alluvial silt deposited by the Arno river, with variable compaction) began compressing under the tower's weight when construction had reached the third storey in 1178, the construction was abandoned for 100 years (and the Pisa Republic was busy with its wars against Genova and Florence), during which the soft soil partially consolidated, and when construction resumed in 1272 the builders compensated by building the remaining stories slightly taller on the south side, giving the tower its specific banana curve (curved rather than straight-leaning). The lean at the completion (1372): approximately 1.6 degrees. The lean by 1990: 5.5 degrees (the increasing lean, at approximately 1mm per year, had reached dangerous instability by the late 20th century). The 1990-2001 stabilisation operation: the north foundation soil was carefully removed (830 tonnes of soil extracted over 10 years in a controlled process) to allow the tower to gently settle back toward vertical. The lean was reduced from 5.5 to 3.97 degrees, and the tower was certified stable for at least 300 years. The twice-saved stories: during WWII, an American sergeant was ordered to call in an artillery strike on all towers in the Pisa area (suspected German observation posts). Arriving at Piazza dei Miracoli and seeing the Leaning Tower for the first time, he refused to call in the strike and the tower survived. This is documented in Sergeant Leon Weckstein's memoir. The tower reportedly distracted a German officer from a planned demolition in 1944 by the same visual impact. Both accounts circulate. The Weckstein story is the more documented. Tuscany guide
Italian Towers: tours & tickets
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See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.San Gimignano, the 72 towers and the 14 survivors
San Gimignano (province of Siena, Tuscany. 36 km northwest of Siena. Accessible by bus from Siena or Poggibonsi train station) was a Via Francigena pilgrim town and a significant medieval comune with a population of approximately 13,000 in the 13th century. The specific San Gimignano tower culture: at its peak (approximately 1200-1250), the town had 72 towers, each built by a competing noble family (the Ardinghelli, the Salvucci, the Tinacci) in the specific competitive escalation of medieval Italian tower building. The comune government imposed successive height limits. Rival families ignored them. The Plague of 1348 (which killed approximately 60% of San Gimignano's population in 6 months) ended the tower-building competition by eliminating the wealth and population to sustain it. Of the 72 original towers, 14 survive in several states of completeness. The Torre Grossa (54 metres, in the Palazzo del Popolo, Piazza del Duomo. €9 combined with the Civic Museum) is the only San Gimignano tower open to the public for climbing: the specific 360-degree view of the remaining towers, the Val d'Elsa, and the surrounding Tuscan landscape is the best single viewpoint in the Sienese hills.
Why does the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean?
The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans because the construction began in 1173 on alluvial silt soil (deposits from the Arno river) that has variable compaction on the south side, when the tower weight reached the third storey in 1178, the south foundation soil began compressing unevenly and the tower started to tilt. Construction was abandoned for 100 years. When resumed in 1272, the builders added taller floors on the south side to compensate, creating the specific banana curve. By 1990 the lean had reached 5.5 degrees (dangerous). A 10-year stabilisation removed 830 tonnes of north foundation soil to settle the tower back to 3.97 degrees, certified stable for at least 300 years.
How many towers did San Gimignano have?
San Gimignano originally had approximately 72 towers at its 13th-century peak, built by competing noble families as status symbols, military refuges, and territorial claims on the skyline. The medieval Italian tower tradition was specifically competitive: families built towers as high as possible, and the comune periodically imposed height limits that were ignored. The 1348 plague (killing approximately 60% of the population) ended the building program. 14 towers survive today. The Torre Grossa (54 metres, climbable, €9) is the tallest and the only public one. San Gimignano is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.
What are the two Bologna towers?
The Due Torri (Two Towers, Piazza di Porta Ravegnana, Bologna city center) are the Torre Asinelli (97.2 metres tall, 1109-1119, 498 steps, €5, the tallest surviving medieval tower in Italy. Climbable. The specific 360-degree Bologna view from the top includes the Apennines, the Po Valley, and the medieval city layout) and the Torre Garisenda (48 metres tall, built c.1109-1110, leaning 3.22 degrees, slightly more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa's current lean. Not climbable. Currently under structural monitoring). The Garisenda's lean: the tower was deliberately truncated in the 14th century (reduced from approximately 60 metres to the current 48 metres) because the lean was considered dangerous. Dante mentions it in the Inferno (Canto XXXI) as a simile for the giant Antaeus bending over him.
What was the medieval Italian tower war?
The medieval Italian tower war (the competitive tower-building between noble families in the 12th-13th century Italian city-states) was the physical expression of the specifically Italian political condition of the medieval commune: the city governed by competing noble families who couldn't suppress each other but also couldn't cooperate, and who instead expressed their rivalry through architectural escalation. The towers served simultaneously as fortresses (the noble family would retreat to their tower during street fighting and shower arrows and projectiles from the top), as economic symbols (tower construction required significant capital), and as social status markers (height = prestige). The commune governments eventually broke the tower culture by imposing mandatory height limits and later by requiring families to demolish towers above the legal maximum, most medieval Italian cities lost their tower skylines through enforced demolition rather than natural collapse.
What other Italian medieval towers can I visit?
Notable Italian medieval towers beyond Pisa, San Gimignano, and Bologna: the Torre del Mangia (Siena, Piazza del Campo. 88 metres, 1338-1348, €10. Climbable. The specific Siena and Val d'Arbia panorama from the top). The Towers of Pavia (the ancient Lombard capital, still has approximately 3-4 surviving towers in the city center). The Torre Guinigi in Lucca (45 metres, with a roof garden of holm oak trees growing at the top, the most specific single tower in Italy, €5). And the Torre del Comune in Bergamo Alta (the medieval civic tower of the Città Alta, free exterior view, the bell rings twice daily in the medieval tradition).
Planning an Italian medieval towers circuit?
Pisa Leaning Tower €18 + San Gimignano 14 towers Torre Grossa view + Bologna Asinelli 498 steps + Siena Torre del Mangia.
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What is the Torre Guinigi in Lucca?
The Torre Guinigi (Lucca, Via Sant'Andrea 41. €5. Open daily 9:30am-6:30pm summer) is the most specific single tower in Italy: a 45-metre medieval family tower with a roof garden of 7 holm oak trees (ilex trees, planted in the 14th century, whose roots have grown into the brick of the tower top and whose canopy is visible from the Lucca city walls). The oaks were planted by the Guinigi family (the ruling family of late-medieval Lucca) as a symbol of prosperity and family continuity. The roots now penetrate the 6th storey of the tower and are visible growing through the masonry in the interior staircase. The view from the tower: the Lucca Romanesque churches, the elliptical Piazza Anfiteatro (the preserved Roman amphitheater piazza shape), and the specific flat Lucca plain with the Apennines beyond. Climb 207 steps to the top.
Is the Leaning Tower of Pisa worth visiting?
The Torre Pendente di Pisa (€18. Book at opapisa.it, booking is mandatory, no walk-in entry. Open daily with timed entry slots) is worth visiting specifically because the lean is much more dramatic in person than in photographs, the lean of 3.97 degrees translates to the top of the tower being 3.9 metres out of vertical, visible and physically disorienting when you stand at the base looking up. The climb (294 steps on the hollow marble staircase built into the tower wall) gives the specific experience of walking the stairs that tilt with the lean, the inner wall leans away from you, the outer wall toward you. The view from the top isn't the primary experience (it shows Piazza dei Miracoli below and the Arno plain). The physical sensation of the climb and the architecture are the primary value. Combine with: the Battistero (the baptistery, the finest acoustics of any building in Italy, a guide demonstrates the echo), the Cathedral (the Pisano pulpit), and the Camposanto (the medieval cemetery with the Triumph of Death fresco).
What is the Torre del Mangia Siena?
The Torre del Mangia (Siena, Piazza del Campo. €10. Open daily approximately 10am-7pm. Timed entry to avoid crowding the staircase. Closed in bad weather) is the tallest medieval civic tower in Italy after the Asinelli in Bologna: 88 metres tall, built 1338-1348 in the same pink-gray Sienese brick (the specific terracotta color of Siena's medieval architecture) as the adjacent Palazzo Pubblico. The name: 'mangiaguadagni' (earnings-eater) was the nickname of the first bell-ringer, Giovanni di Balduccio, who had a reputation for gambling away his wages. The tower climb: 400 steps on a narrow internal staircase, emerging onto an open parapet with a 360-degree view of Piazza del Campo directly below (the shell-shaped brick piazza is best understood from above), the Siena rooftops, and the Val d'Arbia and Chianti hills surrounding the city. The best time: early morning before the Campo fills with tourists, or late afternoon when the light falls on the pink brick.
What happened to Florence's medieval towers?
Florence's 150-200 medieval towers were reduced to approximately 15 surviving examples through three mechanisms: the commune government's height limits (the Florentine Ordinamenti di Giustizia of 1293 imposed a 50-braccia height limit, approximately 29 metres, and required demolition of towers exceeding this. The measure was specifically aimed at controlling noble family military capacity). Family-to-family demolition during the inter-family warfare of the 13th century (a defeated family's tower was typically destroyed by the victors as a symbol of power transfer). And the gradual transformation of tower bases into palaces (many Florentine medieval towers survive only as the lower floors of later Renaissance palaces, the Palazzo Davanzati on Via Porta Rossa, the best-preserved medieval Florentine domestic interior, is built around a medieval tower). The Palazzo Davanzati (€6. Via Porta Rossa 13. Open Wednesday-Monday 8:15am-1:50pm) has a medieval tower core visible in the interior and the most specific surviving example of a 14th-century Florentine merchant house interior.