Il Tirreno Giornale (PISA, Italia, Wednesday 6 June 2001 )
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Here are the stories of the heroes of the stability-miracle Galeotto was a technician for the bell tower who met his future wife during a pause in the work |
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by Carlo Venturini PISA. We are allowed, at least for once, to enter the middle of the workyard of the beautiful Tower of Pisa not to speak about "her," the Tower, rather to meet them: some of those technicians, surveyors, operators from Caserta, Naples, Vicenza and Cosenza that for years live, work and have been, in some cases, in love in the shade of the Tower. We are allowed then, to speak about Lawrence, a child of 11 months born to Francesca, a Pisan and of Massimo Di Nardo, from Cosenza, head operator of the subexcavation machine. Massimo Di Nardo has worked at the Tower since 1995, and almost each weekend he returned to Calabria. "Today I live in Pisa", he tells Di Nardo, "and the work at the Tower has really "straightened" my life. In a pause from work, it is normal for us to go drink coffee in the kiosk near here and it was during one of those coffees that I met Francesca. What will I tell my child? That dad has straightened the Tower of Pisa". The Tower has been "captive" also to a collaborator of the committee of safeguard of the Tower, Nunziante Squeglia of Caserta who arrived in Pisa, for the first time in the 1993 and now lives in the city for more than two years and he says, "my wife worked in Rome, but Pisa, with its monuments and its calm, "recommends" us to stay. Now my wife is expecting a child and thinks that we will move here". Vincent Tirozzi, of Salerno, responsible for the subexcavation says, "I have worked in foreign countries and in other Italian cities and I have never felt as emotionally involved as in Pisa. While I performed my duties, I feel guarded by the eyes of a million of people. All us workers in the yard, feel lions in a cage with thousands of tourists with photos, film and strang questions. I have become accustomed here and I have understood that we were doing is historic. Now I have a house in the city and when I stop working, I walk around the yard, beyond the metallic enclosure and, like all the tourists, read the poster of the work on the Tower. I read it, I look at the bell tower and I smile because there is some of me in this work". Daniele Minozzo of Vicenza, in Pisa since 1995, is concerned with the monitoring and of the topography of the yard. "I Do a job that "persecutes" me. I live 100 meters from the Tower and if I open the window it is there looking at me. I have also worked in foreign countries but I will always carry with me this baggage of human and professional experience". Ilaria Mancini is secretary and works in the general area of the yard: "for two years, I see the Tower from the small window of my office. It is reassuring to see it and know that it is getting better. I still remember still when they removed the first counterweights. There was only the noise of the crane. We all we held our breath". Another Pisan worker, employed for the liquidation of the work performed, Stephen Franconi says: "I have been here since 1995 and the exclamations of the tourists in front of the Tower now does it all for me". The one who has been present since the beginning of the work, the technical and responsible manager of the workyard is, Paolo Heiniger who in the period of maximum activity has coordinated almost 40 workers, "all highly qualified", says the same Heiniger who continues: "I remember with pleasure the exchanges and the frequent meetings with the Pisan academic world, Italian and international. The technology used in the yard, at the vanguard, has attracted the attention of many qualified researchers who view Pisa as a unique example of ultramodern technology applied to the stabilization of a work of the most precious and delicate art of the planet. Wwe could not allow a mistake here". Translated by Gary Feuerstein, 24 February 2002, from the Il Tirreno article Return to Leaning Tower of Pisa News Page  This Page maintained by: Gary Feuerstein
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