Italy: Bologna – Two Towers

The two slender medieval leaning towers – Torre Asinelli and Torre Garosenda – deserve a separate post for they are even more spectacular than the Pisa Tower, although much less famous. Bologna used to have around 20 Such towers built around 12th century as watch towers, places of refuge and showoff of wealth by rich merchant families. In fact, their names comes from the families that built and owned them – Asinelli and Garasenda – who competed in whose tower was gonna be built taller. Asinelli Tower is 97.2m tall, while Garisenda is only 40m (it used to be 60m, but had to be shortened due to imminent danger of collapse. Both towers are seriously leaning – the taller tower is 1.3 degrees while the shorter one is 4.0 degree (which is more of a lean then the Pisa Tower). The two towers are undisputed symbols of Bologna.