The Torre di Pisa is a bell tower located on the grounds of the Piazza del Duomo, Pisa’s Cathedral Square. Construction of the 56 meter tower lasted almost two hundred years; it began in 1173, and ended in 1372. Unstable subsoil and a poorly designed foundation caused the tower to lean during the early construction stages. Attempts to correct the problem failed or worsened the lean until recently, when the tower was stabilized and the tilt reduced by several inches.
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Italy began to fragment into independent city states after the fall of the Roman Empire. Some of the city states flourished during the Renaissance; Florence, Venice, and Milan, but they began to fall into decline with the formation of larger unified nations. Most became vassal states to their more powerful neighbors. The process for Italian unification, the “Risorgimento,” began with the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, and was completed with the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919.
