14. The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Cont.)

And there it stands, or leans, gently falling toward earth in what might be called the most elegant display of the law of gravity ever. The graceful, rounded, facades of the "Little Tower That Could" are beautiful, but it is its lean-the force of nature tipping the scales-that makes it truly special. Recent attempts to shore up the tower have had mixed results. Although nobody wants it to be straight, no one wants it to fall, either. Six hundred tons of lead were added to the north side of the foundation in 1994, and for a brief moment time stopped. Much to everyone's horror, the tower actually began to straighten! But one night in September that very next year, Mother Nature again slipped in her slender finger, and the tower shifted 2.5 millimeters southward overnight.

No one knows when or if it will finally fall to earth. Right now it is poised like an elegant ballerina before her final bow. Considered one of the modern wonders of the world, this is one "failure" of which Italians can truly be proud.

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