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(PISA, Italia, 15 December 2001) La Repubblica Giornale Twelve years for the restorations, cost 53 billion lire For the first time, the monument is a little bit less tilted An Emotional Moment for the First Tourists |
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PISA - After twelve years of closing for resoration the Tower of Pisa has been reopened today to the public, now that it is less tilted. The first to climb the 293 steps have been a group of fortunate tourists, Italian and foreign, to whom the mayor of the city, Paolo Fontanelli, has been host. "What emotion!" a Catalan girl, Maria Carmen, has exclaimed, one of the first people to climb in top. Then, the time for journalists who have come from all the world for the event. The first two tickets sold - they cost 30 thousand lire (15 euro)- at the ticket office in Piazza dei Miracoli have gone to a couple of Danish tourists in their sizties, Jens and Hanna Scou, residents of Riga in Estonia. "I find that the ticket", the visitor commented, "is not too expensive for a monument so extraordinary, it is worth the amount. I had climbed it 15 years ago and now I am pleased to be the first that has returned to the Tower." Access is allowed to groups of thirty people with a guide companion for 35-40 minutes. The Tower of Pisa was closed January 7 1990 and since then, through long and complex interventions, at a cost of 53 billion lire ($25 million US), it has been placed in safety, reducing its inclination by 44 centimeters. It should be safe "for the next 2-3 centuries," assured Pierfrancesco Pacini, president of the work of the Primaziale. Obstacles and dangers have not been missing during these years, as in September 1995, when, because of the congelation of the ground, the Tower moved dangerously. "From today," Pisa mayor Paolo Fontanelli has said, to whom the keys of the monument has been redelivered on June 16, "we are all calmer, we can take a sigh of relief for the Tower, that is a treasure of the world." The bell tower will be monitored moment by moment under the supervision of a committee of three experts, while a restoration of the marble is under way for which an expense of 9 billion more lire is anticipated. To the historic ceremony of reopening had been invited the three ministers, Lunardi, Matteoli and Urbani but nonew were present. "Perhaps", Pierfrancesco Pacini commented diplomatically, "in consideration of the sober character that we have wanted to give today's ceremony so as to respect the fall of the Twin Towers." |
Translated by Gary Feuerstein, 15 December 2001 from the La Repubblica article
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