Hey all! My name is Paige Huschka and I am a junior at UST studying mechanical engineering. Today was Day 16 and I have the pleasure of covering what I deem the coolest day thus far: Carrara Marble quarries and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Me with Carrara Marble!

We first headed up to Carrara, a small town in Northern Italy in the mountains. This town is home to huge marble quarries that have been supplying marble for over 2000 years. What is interesting about Carrara is even though these marble quarries create a booming profit for the owners, the city itself is very poor. We had the privilege of being able to actually head directly into the quarries via Land Rovers, hundreds of feet up a mountain. If you haven’t ridden in a Land Rover, there are two rules: 1. It is NOT a Jeep so don’t call it one (offense will be taken) and 2. Hold onto your hats and prepare to get snuggly with your neighbor! It will bump you around more than a rollercoaster. Once up in the quarries, the view was absolutely breathtaking. The white marble was extremely bright with the reflecting sun and stood high above us. We learned that this marble is excavated basically the same way it was back in the Roman times: with a diamond encrusted steel cable that wraps around the marble in the mountains to cut it. They predict only 94% of the marble has been excavated so if you want to visit it too, it’s not going anywhere – just make sure to wear shoes you don’t care about, it gets a tad bit messy. Our amazing tour guide also bestowed us with the wonderous knowledge that Carrara Marble is in basically everything you could think of, whether it be building materials, facial cream, toothpaste, yogurt, CaCO3 chemical compounds, or anything you can find that contains calcium in it. On our way down from the mountains, our tour guide gave us the opportunity to try lard. If you don’t know what lard is, it is straight pig fat. Sounds yummy right? I was a bit wary about it, but after being prepared with spices and sitting for months, it actually tastes pretty good on toast.

Good view of the marble excavation.

After Carrara, we headed to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. From an engineering standpoint, it is quite more than a basic Instagram picture. The reason it leans is because of the soft soil it was built upon, resulting in too much compression in the foundation that made the tower lean. Originally, the first four levels were built first. Then, they finally realized that the tower was leaning, stopped construction, and came back to build the next levels at an angle to try to correct it. This did not work well and resulted in the tower’s banana shape. To correct the final building, engineers had to consider that they needed to protect the integrity of the tower first and foremost: meaning, they could not add gaudy mechanisms on the outside that would ruin the aesthetic and meaning of the building. Some solutions attempted did not work, and some even made the leaning worse. Finally, at the beginning of the 21^st century, they came up with genius (yet surprisingly simple) solution: soil excavation. They removed soil from the North side of the tower (non-leaning side) to even out the foundation, and the tower has slowly but surely been leaning back to straight. Don’t worry, it will still be leaning for another 200-300 years, so you’re still able to take a basic insta pic. Speaking of, here are some of my favorite pictures from today:

He is beauty, he is grace.

Senior boys + Charles (Trying to reenact the raising of the flag of at Iwo Jima)

Joe doing… who knows what?

We climbed to the top of the tower and got some pictures of the spectacular view (even the people afraid of heights – so proud!)

After the Leaning Tower, we toured the Pisa Cathedral. Like all of the architecture we have toured, it was beautiful. What was interesting about this cathedral is the Spanish hints in its architecture – you can note the stripes throughout the church on the walls and arches that is associated with Spanish architecture.

Touring the Campo Santo, an ancient cemetery, was next on the agenda. This actually was the main attraction of Pisa in the 18^th and 19^th century, rather than the Leaning Tower, due to the immaculate frescoes on the wall. One that particularly struck me was a depiction of Hell, with Lucifer and his demons in the middle, showing what could happen to someone if they did not live morally and faithfully to God. If that fresco wouldn’t want to make you be a better person, I don’t know what would. I mean, I personally wouldn’t want a demon tearing apart my limbs for breakfast (but that might be just me).

Finally, our last stop was the baptistery. The acoustics in this place were AMAZING. Maybe my acapella group Cadenza can hit up this place for our next concert venue? The one thing that stood out to me was the dome in the baptistery was the only unpainted dome I’ve seen on this trip.

After getting through the main attractions in Pisa, we ended the trip with a bus ride, always in fear of sleep, for Grant has made it his mission to take pictures with everyone’s conked out face. Moral of the story? Always be ready for the unknown… aka  Grant’s face uncomfortably close to yours on a bus.