Pisa: the Leaning Tower, Piazza dei Cavalieri and the Lungarni
Piazza dei Miracoli with the Tower, the Cathedral and the Baptistery in the morning, the centre with Piazza dei Cavalieri, Borgo Stretto and Santa Maria della Spina on the Arno in the afternoon.
A full day in Pisa, without rushing. In the morning, Piazza dei Miracoli, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987: on the green lawn stand the Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Tower, which has been leaning for more than eight centuries. After lunch, the city centre, which tourists often skip: Piazza dei Cavalieri, where students of the Scuola Normale study, the arcades of Borgo Stretto and the Lungarni, with the small Gothic church of Santa Maria della Spina on the riverbank. This is the shorter version of the day trip with Lucca: it also works well if you're starting from the coast.
Length from Cervia e Milano Marittima10 h 50 Full day
Driving6 h 00 · 555 km there and back
Visits and stops3 h 50
When to goAll year round
The plan from Cervia e Milano Marittima
Leave Cervia e Milano Marittima for Pisa, Piazza dei Miracoli3 h 00 driving, 278 km
Pisa, Piazza dei Miracoli2 h 05 of visits: The Leaning Tower, The Cathedral, The Baptistery
Lunch in Pisa1 h 00 of visits: away from the Tower, towards Borgo Stretto and Piazza delle Vettovaglie: cecina, zuppa pisana, baccalà, pastries from the centre's cake shops.
Pisa, the centre and the Lungarni1 h 45 of visits: Piazza dei Cavalieri, Borgo Stretto and Piazza delle Vettovaglie, The Lungarni and Santa Maria della Spina
Drive back to Cervia e Milano Marittima3 h 00 driving, 277 km
Back in Cervia e Milano Marittima
Times are a guide: driving times are worked out without traffic, then come the visits and ten minutes at every stop to park. In summer towards the coast and at rush hour allow extra time.
What you will see
1Pisa, Piazza dei Miracoli
The Leaning Tower 45 min
It's the bell tower of the Cathedral, begun in 1173. It started leaning just a few years later, when they'd reached the third floor, because the ground beneath is soft: work stopped for almost a century and the tower was only finished in the fourteenth century, with the upper floors slightly curved to straighten it. Between 1990 and 2001 it was closed and made safe by removing soil from under the higher side: today it leans at about 4 degrees and is stable.
The climb (more than 250 steps) is done in half-hour slots with a timed ticket: book ahead. Children under 8 cannot climb.
The Cathedral 30 min
It was begun in 1064 by the architect Buscheto with the spoils of a naval victory against the Arabs: it's the model of Pisan Romanesque, with bands of white and grey marble and loggias on the façade. Inside there's the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano, carved between 1302 and 1310, and the bronze lamp which, according to tradition, led Galileo, a Pisan, to discover the laws of the pendulum.
Free entry with a timed voucher, collected from the ticket office.
The Baptistery 25 min
Begun in 1152 by Diotisalvi, it's the largest baptistery in Italy: round, Romanesque below and Gothic above. Inside there's the pulpit by Nicola Pisano from 1260, Giovanni's father. Every half-hour a custodian sings a few notes at the centre of the hall, and the echo from the dome makes them last for ages, like a choir.
Ticket, combined with the Camposanto and museum.
2Pisa, the centre and the Lungarni
Piazza dei Cavalieri 25 min
This was the political heart of medieval Pisa. In the sixteenth century Cosimo I de' Medici made it the headquarters of the Order of the Knights of Santo Stefano, who fought pirates in the Mediterranean, and Giorgio Vasari rebuilt the Palazzo della Carovana with its façade entirely decorated with sgraffito: today it's where students of the Scuola Normale Superiore study, founded by Napoleon in 1810. Next door is the church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, with flags captured from the Turks. In the Palazzo dell'Orologio there's the tower where Count Ugolino was locked up to starve to death, as Dante recounts in the Inferno.
The square is open; the church of Santo Stefano has limited opening hours.
Borgo Stretto and Piazza delle Vettovaglie 15 min
Borgo Stretto is Pisa's elegant street, with low arcades, historic cafés and shop windows, running down towards the Arno. Right next to it is Piazza delle Vettovaglie, the market square enclosed by sixteenth-century loggias: in the morning there are fruit and vegetable stalls, in the evening it fills with young people.
Open access.
The Lungarni and Santa Maria della Spina 20 min
Along the Arno, which makes a great curve through Pisa, stand the coloured palaces of noble families. On the south bank there's Santa Maria della Spina, a small Gothic church all in marble, covered with spires and statues: it takes its name from a thorn from Christ's crown that was kept there. It used to stand lower down, on the riverbank: in 1871, to save it from the river's floods, it was dismantled piece by piece and reassembled higher up.
The Lungarno is open access; the church has limited opening hours and a small admission charge.
Tips
Climbing the Tower requires a timed booking: book it between 10 and 11 o'clock.
If you have extra time, you'll also find the Camposanto in Piazza dei Miracoli, the monumental cemetery with the great fresco of the Triumph of Death, which you can visit with the same ticket as the Baptistery.
Near the station there's Tuttomondo, the large mural painted by Keith Haring in 1989, one of his last works.
On 16 June, for the Luminara di San Ranieri, the Lungarni light up with thousands of candles; on the last Saturday in June there's the Gioco del Ponte.
The same trip from other towns
How long it takes from each town, the drive back included. Tap a town to see the plan from there.
Almost every old town has a limited traffic zone (ZTL) with cameras: park outside and walk in. The fine reaches your home, abroad too. ZTL and car parks town by town
This trip with a driver
Romagna Transfer picks you up at your hotel, drops you in front of every stop and brings you back: no parking, no ZTL, and the wine is yours to enjoy.
Trips written by our editors from the facts of our monument pages and the official sites. Opening days and hours change: the note under every place tells you what to check before you leave. No prices: you find them on the museums' sites.
