Visitors return to Pisa

View to a thrill: Students take in the sights

Ten years after the last visitors enjoyed the views from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a privileged group of 100 Pisa University students have been allowed up the medieval tower.

I couldn't miss this opportunity ... it's just amazing

Fabio Vasarelli

Saturday's visit was a symbolic gesture designed to show off a project aimed at correcting the tower's perilous lean.

When the tower was closed a decade ago, officials said it would be open again in a few years.

But project managers warn that even when the tower reopens to the general public - hopefully by next spring - visitors might not be allowed to climb it on a regular basis.

Student Fabio Vasarelli, was therefore making the most of his visit.

"I couldn't miss this opportunity," he said.

"I'd never been here and it's just amazing."

Glory of Pisa

The supporting wires are clear as students wait to climb the tower

The straightening plan includes attaching a pair of steel "suspenders" to the tower.

When the work began, the tower leaned six degrees, or four metres, off the perpendicular, on its south side.

Now it is 14cm straighter than it was at the beginning of the year - back to the levels of more than a century ago.

To stabilise the tower while the work was underway, 800 tonnes of lead counterweights were placed at the base.

When work is finished, the monument will lean 43cm less than it did in 1700 - enough to stabilise it, but not enough for the naked eye to detect.

"At that point, the tower will be OK for two or three centuries," said Michele Jamiolkowski, who heads the committee of experts monitoring the 54-billion lire ($27m) project.

But Giorgio Macchi, of the experts' committee, said: "The monument could hardly sustain the millions of tourists who would flock to it every year."

Construction of the 58 metre-high tower began in 1173 to celebrate the glory of Pisa, in those years a wealthy port town.

The soil underneath its foundations began sinking when it was just 10.5 metres high, starting its centuries-long tilt.

The builders forged ahead, however, completing it in 1360.