Italy’s famed Leaning Tower of Pisa gets a 300-year lease on life

by Jeffrey White on

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, perhaps Italy’s most photographed tourist attraction, is structurally sound now and will remain upright for another 300 years.

That is the conclusion of an architect and geologist assessing the more than 700-year-old bell tower, who tells Italy’s leading newspaper that a massive rescue project that ended in 2001 was successful.

The tower was closed to visitors for almost all of the 1990s, when work began on a project to anchor down the tower and reinforce the ground on which it stands; the tower leans because it sinks in small increments every year. The tower has a height of nearly 185 feet.

The engineering project of the 1990s adjusted the tower’s lean by 1 1/2 feet, according to Reuters. Now the tower leans about 13 feet off the vertical, which is about where it was back in 1700.

Now, work is set to begin to slowly sandblast and clean the tower’s marble.

The tower was built between 1174 and 1370.

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The strangest hotels in the world….

Europe on a budget: Take public transportation

by Anna Brones on

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise, but when you are trying to save those euros this summer, you are going to want to spend your time discovering cities by way of public transportation. Buses, street cars and metros are what the European continent is known for, and this article in the New York Times highlights how many good deals you can find aboard different forms of transportation.

The article lays out how much you’ll have to pay and where public transportation can take you in five European cities: London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and Rome. Any budget conscious traveler will most likely already be well versed in the variety of modes of public transportation and how to pay for them — the constant “single tickets vs. multi-day pass” question — but what I do like about the article are the recommendations for day trips, all accessible by main Metro, Tube or U-Bahn lines, and that take you to some off the beaten path destinations.

The budget basics:

London: The Tube. Invest in a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card to save some money, you have to pay a 3.50£ deposit to get the card, so make sure not to lose it so you can get your money back.
Paris: Le Metro. One trip passes are 1.50€, but the Times recommends that it’s probably cheaper to buy a pack of ten than invest in a multi-day pass.
Barcelona: Metro. Single tickets cost 1.30€, but it makes more sense to buy a ten trip pass which starts at 7.20€.
Berlin: U-Bahn. Single ticket fares start at 2.10€ and a one day pass starts at 6.10€.
Rome: Metropolitana. It’s super cheap: single-ride tickets start at 1€ and one-day passes at 4€!

Read the whole article here.

Man arrested for snapping women’s bottoms in Venice

by Iva Skoch on

Venice has been ultra-progressive lately, especially when it comes to quality of life issues. Not only did they finally prohibit pigeon-feeding, but they have also just caught the mysterious serial female butt snapper, who has been walking behind women in Venice in a hooded shirt, taking photos through a small hole in the side of the bag.

He doesn’t seem like your typical bottom snapper, mind you. This man has been doing this for two years and has accomplished to take more than 3,000 pictures of the various bottoms of female tourists in Venice.

The man was stopped after police became suspicious of a large bag he was carrying as he followed women through St Mark’s Square. He has been charged with infringement of privacy, BBC reports. It is a cheeky crime, which could earn this 38-year-old Italian (married, with two kids, by the way) from six months to four years in jail.

This guy should have really gotten together with the serial bottom-pincher, who is currently on the run in the UK. What a team of superheroes those two could form!

The tradition of pigeon feeding in Venice’s St. Mark’s Square is over

by Jeffrey White on

It is now illegal to feed the pigeons in Venice’s St. Mark’s Square, or anywhere else in the city for that matter.

Venice’s avian crackdown, which went into effect on Wednesday, joins the likes of London’s and New York’s, where it’s been against the law to feed pigeons for some time now. But it’s difficult to name a city that has a closer connection with the “winged rat” than Venice: Who hasn’t imagined walking across St. Mark’s early in the morning with no one around (“Yeah right!” you say of Venice) and scattering pigeons, which take flight in a rush of wings that do not quite drone out the chimes from a nearby bell tower.

Of course, you can still scatter the pigeons, I guess — there are an estimated 40,000 living in Venice. But feeding them is going to cost you a 50 euro fine (around $75)

Naturally, the dozen or so vendors in St. Mark’s Square who made their living selling breadcrumbs to tourists who wanted pigeon-laden snapshots are angry at the city’s mayor for imposing the crackdown, saying they’ve been catering to this particular niche in Venice’s tourist market for more than a century.

What do you think? Is banning pigeon feeding silly or practical? Do places like St. Mark’s and Trafalgar Square in London lose something by such laws?

Italians now know how much other Italians make. Mamma mia!

by Iva Skoch on

Can you imagine knowing how much all your friends, neighbors and coworkers make?

Italy’s IRS created a grand snooping opportunity Wednesday when it posted on its Web site the taxable income of just about every Italian citizen – for a few hours. There was a huge outcry, and the tax collector had to take the information down, NPR reports. Listen to the piece here.

According to BBC, the release of the information was one of the last acts of the outgoing center-left government and has shocked many tax-shy Italians. But it was also hugely popular, and within hours the site was overwhelmed and impossible to access.

According to an Italian government report from 2007, the amount of unpaid tax in the country is equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product. The finance ministry described the move as a “bid to improve transparency”.

I don’t think this kind of “transparency” generally goes over well.