THE LEANING TOWERS OE GARISENDA AND ASINELLA : BOLOGNA 



These columns are distinguished as the most extraordinary structures in one of the most 

 venerable and important cities in Italy. The taller is Torre Asinelli, 320 feet high and 4 feet 

 out of the perpendicular; Torre Garisenda was never completed and is only 156 feet high, 

 but 8 feet out of the perpendicular. There is something unnatural and sinister in their appear- 

 ance, quite different from the effect of the leaning tower of Pisa. Dante in the "Inferno" 

 compared a giant bending toward him to Torre Garisenda in a cloud (see page 346). 



347 



