Pisa
Pisa is one famous lawn and a student city behind it, and a third of the people who plan it never sleep here. Climb the tower on a slot, then stay for the evening nobody else does.
Pisa in a nutshell
Pisa: what to expect
Every number below comes from 715,000+ planned stops in Italy on Stippl.
Pisa is worth half a day for the piazza and one night for the city, and most people take the half-day. Everything it is famous for stands on one walled lawn, the Piazza dei Miracoli: the cathedral, the largest baptistery in Italy, the Camposanto with its frescoes back on the walls, and the bell tower that leans, climbed on a timed slot. Behind the lawn is a flat university city of fifty thousand students, with the Lungarni, Borgo Stretto and a Keith Haring mural by the station. Most travellers give Pisa 1 night on Stippl.
Pisa is the most day-tripped place in Italy we hold, and the plans say so. 32.26% of Pisa stops planned on Stippl carry no night at all, and 75.5% of the rest are a single night; Pisa opens 9.5% of the Italy trips it appears on and closes about as many. That is the airport and the Florence to Cinque Terre line doing the planning: people arrive here, or pass through, and give the tower two hours.
Sleep in the centre on either bank, not by the tower, and give the city the evening. The piazza zone is dearer and dead at night, while the Lungarni and the student bars are where Pisa actually happens after the coaches leave. Book the tower slot on the official site before you arrive. Skip the night if you have one spare and Lucca is thirty minutes on; skip the climb with children under eight, who are not admitted.
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Download the appWho Pisa is for
Anyone who wants the postcard
The piazza is one of the two or three images people arrive with, and seeing it is a legitimate reason to come, for an afternoon.
Tuscany rail travellers
Pisa sits on the Florence to Cinque Terre line and costs almost nothing in time, and 32.26% of Pisa stops planned on Stippl carry no night.
Budget travellers
A student city with student prices, hostels, and beds noticeably cheaper than Florence an hour away, once you leave the ring around the piazza.
History travellers
One walled lawn holds a cathedral from 1063, the largest baptistery in Italy, a cloistered cemetery with restored fourteenth-century frescoes and the bell tower.
Art travellers with an hour
Keith Haring's last major public work covers a wall a block from the station, and almost nobody walking to the tower goes to see it.
Families
Flat, compact and walkable, with a park and a section of medieval wall to walk, though the tower climb is closed to children under eight.
Maybe not for you: anyone wanting a week in one place, since Pisa is a strong evening and a good morning and almost no stop runs past two nights; and anyone who will not book the tower ahead, because the slot is the visit.
The best time to visit Pisa
Cold and quiet
November to February
The wettest and cheapest months, and the only time the piazza is not busy; November is the wettest month of the year, and the tower climbs on in the rain.
The first window
March to early June
Warm, open, long light, and before the coach season peaks; Giugno Pisano fills June with the city's own festivals, so the last weeks of the window are the loud ones.
Peak and heat
late June to August
Hot, full, driest, and the one stretch when the beach at Marina di Pisa is worth having; the piazza at noon in July is the version people complain about.
The second window
September to early October
The best combination of weather and space in the year, with the students back and the coaches thinning; the walls and the Lungarni are at their best.
- The tower is a timed slot, sold on the official site at face value, and children under eight are not admitted. Book it before the train; the resale sellers at a markup live off the walk-up queue on the day.
- July is the month most travellers plan Pisa for on Stippl, and June to September takes 64.19% of the plans. That is the piazza at its hottest and fullest; the shoulder months have the lawn to themselves in the morning.
- The Luminara di San Ranieri on 16 June outlines every façade on the Lungarni with about 60,000 wax lights. The tower and the piazza close early that day, the river is the place to be after dark, and the rooms on the banks go weeks ahead.
- The Gioco del Ponte on the last Saturday of June is the city fighting itself, not a show. The two banks push a seven-tonne cart against each other on the Ponte di Mezzo in costume, and the quarters take it seriously.
- Pisa hosts the Regata delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare about one year in four. Venice, Genoa, Amalfi and Pisa rotate; Pisa held it in 2026, so the next home year falls around 2030, and the Arno fills that day.
- Ferragosto on 15 August closes the family-run kitchens. The piazza ring stays open at its markup, so an August night here eats in the student streets that stay open, or not well.
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Things to do in Pisa
Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino via UnsplashClimbing the tower
Two hundred and seventy-three steps of a spiral staircase that is genuinely tilted underfoot, on a timed slot, with the piazza laid out below at the top. About €20, official site only.
The Camposanto
A cloistered cemetery built around soil said to have come from Golgotha, holding the Triumph of Death frescoes that were nearly lost to fire in 1944 and returned after decades of restoration.
The baptistery's echo
The largest baptistery in Italy, and a custodian sings a few notes every half hour to demonstrate the acoustic it was built for. Time the visit to the half hour.
Keith Haring's Tuttomondo
Thirty figures across the end wall of Sant'Antonio Abate, painted in 1989 as one of his last public works, a block from the station and free to see from the street.
The piazza after the coaches
The day-trip traffic clears in the late afternoon, and the same lawn is a different place lit at night, which is the argument for the night. Bring a bottle and sit on the wall.
Walking the medieval walls
About three kilometres of the eleventh-century circuit are open, entered at the Torre di Santa Maria, and the walk looks down into the Piazza dei Miracoli from above for a few euros.
The neighbourhoods of Pisa
Santa Maria
Cobbles up to the piazza
The north-bank quarter between the river and the Piazza dei Miracoli: pedestrianised, cobbled, and where the market and the small restaurants are. For first visits that want the lawn in the morning.
The piazza at the top of the street, but the dearest rooms in the city.
Borgo Stretto
Arcades, coffee, gelato
The arcaded medieval shopping street running north from Ponte di Mezzo, opening onto the Piazza delle Vettovaglie market, with the passeggiata under the arches. For couples and second visits.
The best evening street and the market, and the noise of both under the window.
Piazza dei Cavalieri
Vasari's square, students
The Renaissance square that was the political centre, redesigned by Vasari, and now the Scuola Normale's front door, with student cafés around it. For anyone who wants the university city rather than the lawn.
The handsomest square in Pisa and student prices, and a ten-minute walk to the tower.
San Francesco
Quiet squares, bar strip
Quiet streets and small squares on the north bank east of Santa Maria, with the bar strip where it meets the centre. For nightlife and eating out.
Quiet by day and the bars by night, and a walk to everything else.
San Martino
South bank, lived-in
The south bank, holding the Keith Haring mural, the Giardino Scotto and the graphics museum, residential and cheaper. For value and longer stays.
A lived-in quarter at lower prices, and the river to cross for the sights.
Sant'Antonio and San Giusto
Station streets
The south bank around Pisa Centrale: the highest concentration of beds in the city and the cheapest of them, fifteen minutes' walk from the piazza. For early trains and the airport shuttle.
The cheapest beds and the shuttle at the door, and the least charm in the city.
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Where to stay in Pisa
Sleep in the centre on either bank, and not by the tower: the walk from anywhere inside the walls is under twenty minutes, and the piazza zone is both dearer and dead at night. Most travellers give Pisa 1 night on Stippl, and the night is the point, so the Lungarni or Borgo Stretto side puts you where the city is after seven.
Santa Maria
B&Bs and small hotels between the river and the piazza, €70 to €130 a double, dearer nearest the lawn.
Borgo Stretto
Rooms above the arcades and the market, €65 to €110 a double.
Piazza dei Cavalieri
Guesthouses around the square and the university, €60 to €100 a double.
San Francesco
Apartments and B&Bs in the quiet squares, €60 to €100 a double.
San Martino
South-bank apartments and family guesthouses, €55 to €95 a double, quiet at night.
Sant'Antonio and San Giusto
Hostels and budget hotels by the station, from €25 a dorm bed to €85 a double.
What to eat in Pisa
thin baked chickpea-flour flatbread sold by the slice, eaten warm
yesterday's bread cooked back into a hearty vegetable-and-bean soup
bread-based winter soup, plain Tuscan cooking
white beans stewed with sage, tomato and often sausage
Pisa carries one of the guide-rated gelaterie in Italy
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Pisa customs and what not to do
Keep off the grass
The Piazza dei Miracoli lawn is roped and patrolled, and the rule is enforced while several hundred people photograph each other on the edge of it.
The tower photo is a sport
Nobody minds it, everyone does it, and stepping back to watch other people attempt it is a better use of ten minutes than joining in.
Cover up for the cathedral
Shoulders and knees covered for the cathedral and the baptistery, with the check at the door, so the scarf comes in the bag.
The passeggiata is real here
The early-evening walk along the Lungarni and Borgo Stretto is what the city does before dinner, and it is the Pisa the day-trippers miss.
A rivalry, not a pageant
At the Gioco del Ponte the two banks of the Arno compete as themselves and the quarters take it seriously, so watch it as a local event.
Do
- Book the tower slot before you arrive, at face value on the official site
- Walk two streets off the piazza before eating anything
- Give the city an evening; the difference between Pisa at three and at nine is the whole argument
- Store your bag at the station if you are passing through; it is what makes a two-hour stop workable
Don't
- Drive into the centre; the ZTL runs around the clock and the fine arrives later through the rental company
- Book a room right by the tower expecting an evening around it
- Take a resale ticket at a markup when the official price is about €20
- Plan the climb for a child under eight; they are not admitted, and there is no exception
What a Pisa trip costs
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Fun facts about Pisa
The Leaning Tower started leaning before it was finished, and the pauses saved it. Work began in 1173, the tilt showed by the third storey, and construction stopped for decades while Pisa was at war; the soil settled in the pauses.
The upper storeys of the Leaning Tower are built crooked to compensate. That is why the tower has a slight banana curve rather than a straight lean, and why the top floors sit closer to vertical than the base.
The Leaning Tower leans about four degrees since the 1990 to 2001 stabilisation. The Opera della Primaziale measures it its own way and publishes a larger figure, but the structure has not moved since the work.
Engineers declared the Leaning Tower stable in 2008. They expect it to hold for around three centuries, and the guides that say it leans further every year have been wrong since the stabilisation.
Napoleon founded the Scuola Normale Superiore in 1810, not the University of Pisa. The university dates from 1343; the Normale is a separate institution on Piazza dei Cavalieri and takes fewer than sixty undergraduates a year.
Galileo was born in Pisa in 1564 and baptised in the baptistery. He later held the chair of mathematics at the university, a few streets from the tower.
Local tips for Pisa
The easiest airport in Tuscany
Galileo Galilei has cheap European flights, the PisaMover reaches the main station in about five minutes for about €6, and Florence is an hour further on by train.
The ZTL is the costly mistake
Pisa's limited-traffic zone applies around the clock and cameras enforce it, with the fine arriving months later through the rental company. Park outside and walk; everything is flat.
Hotel guests can park in yellow
Guests of city-centre hotels can use the Santa Maria yellow bays at a day rate published by the comune, about €12 a day, so check with the property before driving in.
Pockets go on the lawn
Pisa is a safe city, but the Piazza dei Miracoli concentrates thousands of distracted people holding phones at arm's length, which is the ideal working environment for pickpockets.
Two hours works, with a locker
Store the bag at Pisa Centrale, walk twenty minutes to the piazza, climb on a booked slot and walk back: the day-trip stop is two to three hours, and Lucca is thirty minutes on.
A third never sleep here
32.26% of Pisa stops on Stippl carry no night, and 75.5% of the rest are a single night, so the evening on the Lungarni is the thing almost everyone skips.
Pisa questions, answered
For the piazza, yes, and it is what most people do: 32.26% of Pisa stops planned on Stippl carry no night at all, and most travellers who stay give it 1 night. Two to three hours covers the lawn and the climb; the night buys the Lungarni after the coaches leave, which is the city most visitors never see.
On the official site, at face value, on a timed slot, and before you arrive: the walk-up queue is what the resale sellers at a markup are counting on. Children under eight are not admitted and there is no exception, and the rest of the piazza sits on a separate combined ticket with the cathedral free.
On the Florence to Cinque Terre line, and at the airport: Pisa opens 9.5% of the Italy trips it appears on, of everyone who plans Pisa on Stippl, and closes about as many, which is the cheap-flight arrival and the coast departure. Lay Florence, Pisa and the coast out in Stippl, then show the route to people who have been, in subreddits like r/ItalyTravel.
About fifty minutes on a fast service or ninety on a regional, with more than forty trains a day, so no booking is needed and the next one is never far off. Pair the day with Lucca, thirty minutes on from Pisa, and the two make a full day out of Florence with the tower in the middle.
A flat walk of twenty to twenty-five minutes through the centre, crossing the Arno at Ponte di Mezzo, or a short taxi ride. The walk is the point: Borgo Stretto's arcades and the Piazza dei Cavalieri are on the way, and the station lockers make it a two-hour stop with luggage.
Because it is a student city with student prices, and because almost nobody stays: 75.5% of Pisa overnights in the Italy trips people build on Stippl are a single night, so the beds compete on price. The exception is the ring of restaurants around the piazza, which runs a third above the rest of the centre; walk two streets off it.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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