‘Leaning tower’ in Italy on ‘high alert’ for collapse

Editor’s Note: Sign up to CNN Travel’s Unlocking Italy newsletter for insider intel on Italy’s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. Following investigations last month, the city is instigating a civil protection plan for the “sudden and unexpected collapse of the tower,” which has dominated the Bologna skyline since the 12th century. It puts the site on “high alert” and states that experts “believe that safety conditions no longer exist to operate on or around the tower, except within the framework of a civil protection plan.” Monitoring of the site over the past month has revealed an “unexpected and accelerated trend” of “crushing” compression to the base of the tower, with gradual disintegration of the stone used to clad the base and cracks expanding in the brick above, it says. “We’re acting as if it’s the worst case scenario but that’s not to say it’ll happen,” he said, adding that the precautions are currently on “yellow” alert rather than red, where collapse is imminent. The works won’t come cheap – the cordon alone will cost 4.4 million euros, and any stabilizing work will cost “millions and millions,” said the spokesperson.