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(PISA, Italia, 7 April 2001) La Repubblica Giornale In November Visitors Will Return to Climb on the Monument. Cost of the Restoration: 55 billion lire ($ 25 million US) Nesi: "Italians must be proud of the work that has been completed" |
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PISA - After 11 years of closing and a job costing 55 billion lire, the Tower of Pisa reopens. Beginning next November, with a ticket costing 25,000 lire per head, a person can climb the famous monument. Visits will be allowed in groups of 30 people at a time with guided companions. Visitors will be allowed up to the bell cell and will also be able to go out on one of the loggias.
The announcement is made by the experts on occasion of the summit held yesterday in the presence of the minister of the Public Works, Nerio Nesi and members of the Committee for the Sfeguard of the Tower, among which the president, MicheleJamiolkowski, who noted the accomplishements of the interventions: reduction of the lean of the monument by 39.6 centimeters (missing only 4 millimeters to the finish of the 40), realization of the stabilization, and structural reinforcement. By the end of May, besides, a plan for a material restoration will be ready that will be completed within the year. With this reduction in inclination the tower has completed a footstep back two centuries, returning to the position that it had at the end of the 1700's and able to stay in safety for another three centuries. Ample is the satisfaction of the minister. "Eleven years of work are not so much", commented Nesi, "if you consider that to build this monument it took two centuries. And also the cost has been modest with the money of the Italians spent well." "The Italians," he goes on, "must be proud of this work realized in 11 years: to build it, at the time , needed 200 years." Finally, The President of the Primaziale, Pierfrancesco Pacini has announced that, on the night of June 17, in Piazza dei Miracoli, there will be a concert with Andrew Bocelli and Cecilia Gasdia. |
Translated by Gary Feuerstein, 7 April 2001 from the La Repubblica article
Personal e-mail to:
gary@endex.com
