Pisa

Pisa is far more than its famous tilt. The marble bell tower leaning over its green lawn is one of the world’s most recognisable sights — but round it stands a monumental square of Romanesque splendour, and beyond it a university city of riverbanks, porticoes, medieval churches, Roman ships and contemporary art along the slow brown current of the Arno.

Why visit

Most visitors arrive for a photograph and stay, surprised, for a day or more. The UNESCO-listed Piazza del Duomo — better known as Piazza dei Miracoli — gathers a cathedral, baptistery, bell tower and monumental cemetery of such stylistic unity that the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio called them “miracles”. But Pisa’s second act is equally rewarding: a compact historic centre of frescoed church facades along the lungarni, the porticoed elegance of Borgo Stretto, national museums, the botanical garden of one of Europe’s oldest universities, and a Keith Haring mural on a church wall. Trains from Florence take under an hour, from Pisa’s airport the centre is minutes away, and the city rewards the traveller who lingers into the evening, when the day-trippers leave and the lungarni belong to the Pisani.

Character and history

Pisa’s greatness was built on water. As a maritime republic, it spent the eleventh and twelfth centuries contesting the Mediterranean with Genoa and Venice, and the spoils of naval victory — carried back from Sicily, North Africa and the Greek islands — rose as the marble ensemble of the cathedral square. The republic’s decline began with defeat at Meloria in 1284 and ended with Florentine conquest in 1406, yet the city kept renewing itself: the Medici refounded its university, dredged its port ambitions, and built the arsenal whose vaults now house Roman shipwrecks. Galileo Galilei was born here, and Pisa has remained a university city ever since — young, caffeinated and self-deprecating about its own legend. That mixture of imperial ambition, scholastic calm and riverside languor is what gives Pisa its particular charm.

What to see

Begin with the Piazza dei Miracoli (Cathedral Square), the walled green lawn holding the four monuments that together, in the words of the Opera della Primaziale, form an allegory of human life. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the cathedral’s campanile, famously askew within years of the start of construction; a limited number of visitors can climb it at timed slots. The Pisa Cathedral (Primatial Metropolitan Basilica of the Assumption) is considered the finest example of the Pisan Romanesque style, blending classical, early Christian, Lombard and Eastern motifs, its nave arcades rising under a gilded coffered ceiling. Across the lawn, the Baptistery of St John (Pisa) rises in tiers of Romanesque and gothic loggias, its acoustics famous among guides; the Monumental Cemetery (Camposanto) of Pisa encloses a gothic cloister court whose fresco cycles, damaged in 1944, are being recovered — their preparatory underdrawings are displayed in the Museum of the Sinopias (Pisa), while sculpture and medieval treasures from the square fill the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Pisa).

Cross the river for the second Pisa. Knights’ Square (Piazza dei Cavalieri), redesigned by Vasari for the Order of the Knights of St Stephen, is framed by the Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri (Pisa) with its trophy of captured banners, and the Palazzo dell’Orologio (Pisa) with its tower. Down on the lungarno, the exquisite gothic marble of Santa Maria della Spina (Pisa) seems to hover over the water, while the San Paolo a Ripa d’Arno (Pisa) complex shows Romanesque austerity. Out toward the ancient coastline, the paleochristian Basilica of San Piero a Grado (Pisa) marks where legend places St Peter’s landfall.

The museums reward a slow afternoon: the National Museum of San Matteo (Pisa) for painting and sculpture from the twelfth to the fifteenth century; the National Museum of Palazzo Reale (Pisa) in a Medici palace; and, uniquely, the Museum of Ancient Ships (Pisa), where Roman vessels unearthed at San Rossore, with their cargoes still aboard, recount a thousand years of the city’s relationship with water. Add the Botanical Garden and Museum of the University of Pisa, founded in 1543 and among the first university botanical gardens in the world, the foundation exhibitions of Palazzo Blu (Pisa), and the waterside fortress-garden of the Cittadella Nuova and Giardino Scotto (with Torre Guelfa). In the north of the centre stand the Roman Baths of Nero (Pisa); on via Giunti lies the Birthplace of Galileo Galilei (Pisa); near the station, Tuttomondo (Keith Haring mural, Pisa) — the artist’s last public work — covers a church wall in interlocking figures. Finally, drift down Borgo Stretto (Pisa) under its medieval porticoes and finish at the walls’ Bastione del Barbagianni and Parco delle Concette (Pisa), a leafy park on the ramparts.

How to experience

Time the Field of Miracles for early morning or the evening “nights” openings in summer, when the monuments are floodlit and cool. Then do what the locals do: an aperitivo under the arcades of Borgo Stretto, a walk along both lungarni at dusk, dinner in the San Martino quarter. Book tower climbs well ahead, and consider the combined monument tickets that include the two square museums. The city is flat and bike-friendly — rent one to reach San Piero a Grado along the river, or to trace the medieval walls. September brings the Luminara-adjacent festival season and university term energy; check the municipal tourism programme, which lists sacred-music evenings in the monuments and seasonal exhibitions at Palazzo Blu.

Practical planning

Pisa is superbly connected: Galileo Galilei airport sits at the city’s edge with a shuttle to the station, and direct trains link Florence (about 50 minutes), Lucca and Livorno. The centre is walkable; park at signed lots outside the ZTL or arrive by train. A day covers the square and the highlights, but two days allow the museums and the river quarters. Note that security checks apply at the tower, luggage storage is available near the station, and opening hours of monuments and museums vary seasonally — verify on the official sites before travelling. Sunday mornings see many smaller museums closed or on reduced schedules.

Nearby places

• Volterra — Etruscan hill city and alabaster workshops, about an hour inland.
• San Miniato — truffle town on the hills between Pisa and Florence.