Leaning Tower opens at nights for Pisa sights

The Leaning Tower of Pisa will open at nights during the summer months, for the first time in its 800-year history. Beginning on Saturday, the iconic white marble tower will be lit up against the night sky and tourists with €15 (£9) can scale its 293 steps for a unique view of Pisa and the square below, the Campo dei Miracoli, or Field of Miracles.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa will open at nights during the summer months, for the first time in its 800-year history. Beginning on Saturday, the iconic white marble tower will be lit up against the night sky and tourists with €15 (£9) can scale its 293 steps for a unique view of Pisa and the square below, the Campo dei Miracoli, or Field of Miracles.

The event will be repeated through May, June, July and August. The tower reopened in December after 12 years of extensive restoration work to reduce its tilt. It was closed in 1990 because it was in danger of collapsing but, after a £17m rescue project pulled it towards the perpendicular by 45 centimetres, tourists were again able to enter the tower.

The lean was evident during the tower's 200 years of construction, which began in 1173, because it was built on sandy foundations.

In December the international team of architects and engineers, led by a Polish expert, Michele Jamiolkowski, said the tower would be good for at least 300 years more, though the number of tourists climbing the medieval belfry has been limited to 30 at a time.