It's Falling (Really!)

THEY'VE BEEN SAYING IT FOR EIGHT CENTURIES, BUT this time it's really true: the Leaning Tower of Pisa could fall down any minute. The white marble monument, which now leans 16.5 ft. off center at the top, has been closed to tourists for two years while an international panel of experts came up with a plan for saving it. Everybody has ideas, including a Florentine who suggested erecting a massive statue of Pisa's patron, St. Ranieri, to hold up the bell tower, but engineers finally decided on a more mundane approach. About 800 tons of lead ingots are to be installed at the base to counter the tower's precarious inclinations. To give it some support in the meantime, workers last week began girdling the structure with 18 steel bands.