Leaning Tower of Pisa

Imagine you are standing in a big, green field. The sun is warm and you see a tall, tall building made of shiny white stone. It has many arches that look like smiles. But this building has a silly secret. It doesn’t stand up straight. It leans over to one side, just a little bit. It looks like it is peeking around a corner to say hello. I am that wobbly, peeking building. I am the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I live in a country called Italy.

A very, very long time ago, on August 9th, 1173, some builders started to make me. I was going to be a bell tower for a big, beautiful church next door. They stacked my stones higher and higher. But oops. The ground under me was soft and squishy like mud on one side. So, I started to lean. Just a little bit. The builders were so surprised. They stopped building me in the year 1178 and took a long, long break. When they came back around the year 1272, they tried to fix my wobble. They made the new floors a little taller on one side. But I still had my lean, and I thought it was special.

Finally, around the year 1372, they put my shiny bells on top. Ding, dong. For many years, people worried I might fall down. But then, smart people called engineers came to help me in the 1990s. They made me safe and strong so I will not fall. Now, friends from all over the world come to see me. They smile and take funny pictures where it looks like they are holding me up. I love my wobble. It makes me special and shows everyone that it is wonderful to be a little bit different.