The Field Of Miracles

“Wow, the Leaning Tower really does lean” was M’s surprised reaction when we entered Pisa’s Field of Miracles, what some call a “Catholic theme park” for its Cathedral, Baptistery, and bell tower.  Indeed, I had last visited Italy almost then years ago when I saw the Leaning Tower for the first time; now as then there is the weighty feeling, almost palpable, that there are too many shifty locals scanning our purses not in appraisal of what brand we wear but how much we carry.  However, while the mood has not changed in one of Italy’s most touristy spots, I could swear the bell tower is even less perpendicular to the ground than nearly a decade ago. 

The marble Baptistery is a quiet work of beauty, a wallflower next to the Duomo and Leaning Tower. This time around I noticed the Moorish mosaics on the sprawling Duomo, a surprise for me since I hadn’t read any history of the Moors inhabiting Italy much less influencing Pisan Romanesque architecture.  Despite its grandeur, the Duomo is only the first runner up to the Leaning Tower who reigns as the prom queen at the Field of Miracles. The Tower is striking even when one ignores its lean, and I thought of the irony behind how the tower’s notoriety originates in its imperfection. But then the Leaning Tower’s less-than-ideal structure says a lot about beauty in general: lack of perfection is what makes a building, a painting, a sculpture and even a novel more real and accessible. More so, imperfection in art is the best reminder that it is man’s genius, ambition and labor that produced the object rather than a holy higher being or an incidental space-time continuum.