On this post I will highlight what we did in one day visiting Pisa and the best things to do in this limited time.
My husband and I spent 10 days visiting various towns in Italy. We started the trip in Pisa and followed on to Lucca, Firenze, Siena, Cinque Terre, Portofino, La Spezia and returning to Pisa ending the trip.
We were travelling independently as we are confident travellers and speak a bit of the language. However, if you prefer to be part of a tour and to have everything organised for you, I advise you to book a complete tour with Tourradar.
They have different kinds of tours that will fit your time and budget. If you book it via my links you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
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It was a fabulous trip, and the weather was perfect, we couldn’t have had a better time than the time we spent in Tuscany and Liguria on this trip.
We arrived in Pisa on a Saturday morning and from the airport we took a taxi to take us to our B&B in the centre of the city.
We booked a B&B called “La Perla del Borgo” which is in a small pedestrian lane just off the famous “Borgo Stretto”. It was a lovely, little B&B in an old building with only 4 en-suite rooms available to guests. They have refurbished it, and it looked very beautiful, clean, and comfortable.
We stayed 2 nights with them before leaving to the next stop in Florence. We loved staying there and that was a great choice for our stay.
We arrived at the B&B early for checking-in, they were still cleaning and preparing the room for us, but they allowed us to leave our luggage at reception while we left to explore the area.
Below is a map showing the places we went to and the location of Pisa city in Italy:
That was what we did next, we left in the direction of “Palazzo della Carovana” on Piazza del Cavallieri, our first point of visit, but before going on, let’s learn …
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT PISA
Pisa was one of the maritime republics of Italy in the 11th century and a rival to Genoa and Venice. It had advantage for being the only port on the western coast with ships sailing up and down the Arno River.
It was between the 11th and 13th century that Pisa experienced the best periods in economic, political, and artistic terms.
The decline of Pisa only started in the 13th century, when the city had a lot of conflict with Genoa and other Tuscan rivals and culminated with Pisa being defeated by the Genoese in the Battle of Meloria in 1284.
After that Pisa continued to struggle in battles with the Florentines and the French invasion in 1494. It suffered severe damages in World War II and many churches and buildings were damaged during that time.
Nowadays Pisa is known for its first-class university, its art, and architectural treasures such as the remarkable group of buildings on Piazza dei Miracoli (Miracles’ Square), containing the Duomo, the Baptistery, The Leaning Tower of Pisa (The Campanile) and the Camposanto Cemetery.
Some famous people born in Pisa includes the physicist Galileo Galilei and the tenor Andrea Bocelli.
VISITING PISA
When we arrived at “Piazza Dei Cavallieri”, we admired the beautiful “Palazzo della Carovana” that was built in the 16th century. The building was originally built to be the headquarters and serve the order of the Knights of St Stephen.
Today the building is home to the prestigious “Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,” one of the best in Italy. This is a historic building, famous for its façade decorated with “sgraffiti” and statues in a renaissance architectural style.
The palazzo is not open to the public and can only be visited in special occasions or by previous arrangement. So, we only looked at it from the outside.
From there, we walked in the direction of the river Arno. We followed the river until Solferino Bridge, where we crossed to the other side to see the magnificent Church of Santa Maria della Spina, built in 1230. The church was closed at the time of our visit, and we only admired its marble façade from the outside.
Continuing alongside the river, we strolled back and crossed Ponte di Mezzo to “Piazza Garibaldi”. On this square we found a nice pizza restaurant called “Pizzateca” where we sat and ordered some cold beers, a pizza and some burrata salad. As a late lunch, that was perfect!
We had tickets to visit the buildings on Miracle square, Duomo, the Tower, the Baptistery and the cemetery booked for 4 pm, so after lunch we walked on that direction.
The only building you need to arrive at the time booked is the tower, the other buildings you can visit at your own leisure with no time restraint.
To book skip the line tickets only to the tower and the other buildings at a reserved time book it HERE.
You can have a guided tour of the Baptistery, Cathedral and the tower by booking it HERE.
We arrived in time for our slot, but we decided not to climb the 251 steps to the top of the tower. We were happy to admire the tower from the ground.
Some people say the climb is easy, others say it is not. For us, it didn’t shake our boat. It was a very hot day, we had already walked a fair amount and were a bit tired from the early flight departure, so skipped the climb.
The leaning tower of Pisa is the bell tower of Pisa Cathedral. It is leaning due to unstable foundations. The tower began to lean already at the time of construction during the 12th century and by the time the construction finished in the 14th century it was even worse.
By 1990 it had a tilt of 5.5 degrees and needed stabilization works that were completed in 2001 and reduced the tilt to 3.97 degrees.
After some photos of the famous tower (no, we didn’t take the photo holding the tower as everybody does) we entered the beautiful Duomo.
The Duomo or Pisa Cathedral, real name Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, started being built in 1063 and was completed in 1092 under the name of the architect Buscheto. The style is “Pisan Romanesque” and is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral.
The exterior decoration is of multi-coloured marble, mosaic, and bronze objects. The cathedral suffered a heavy fire in 1595. The façade was damaged and was completely re-designed and executed in 1602.
The interior is full of stripped columns and arches, a bit like the Islamic mosques/cathedrals in Seville and Córdoba in Spain. It has lots of golden decorations and an intricate golden ceiling.
The Cathedral was the first building at “Piazza dei Miracoli” setting the style for the other buildings that complete the ensemble of several magnificent buildings in the square.
The next stop was in the Baptistery, next to the cathedral. This was the second building to be built. Construction started in 1152 and finished in 1363. It is the largest baptistery in Italy. Like the cathedral and the tower, it was built in Carrara marble.
Following on, we entered the Camposanto Cemetery. This was the 4th and last building to be raised on the Cathedral square. Construction started in 1278 and completed in 1484.
The building is composed of 43 blind arches and 2 doorways. Most of the tombs are inside the arcades, but some are in the central lawn. It has 3 chapels and in one of them, the Aulla chapel has the original incense lamp that Galileo Galilei used for the calculations of pendular movements.
The Camposanto Cemetery has a huge collection of Roman sarcophagi, and the walls are covered in frescoes, with the earliest from Francesco Traini painted in 1336/41 and the latest ones from the early 17th century.
After looking at all the impressive buildings at Piazza dei Miracoli it was time to go back to our B&B for some freshen up and rest.
In the evening we went to a restaurant called “La Pergoletta”. It turned out to be one of our best meals on this trip. The restaurant is pretty, the food and wine were great, and we had an excellent evening dining there. Highly recommended.
After dinner we retreated to our room and crashed after such a nice and busy day. We had great expectations for the next day as we were planning to visit Lucca.
Before crashing though, we remembered to book our trip to Lucca next day. We always use Omio to book our trips by train as they are a very easy to use and reliable platform. You can also book buses, flights and ferries with them. Use this link if you want to book train tickets anywhere in Europe.
I hope this post helps you to plan your trip to the city of Pisa and gives you an idea on what to fit in a day in this lovely city.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in Pisa. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
WHAT TO SEE IN PISA
ATTRACTIONS
1 – Palazzo della Carovana – ***
2 – Walk alongside the river Arno – ***
3 – Church of Santa Maria della Spina – ***
4 – Miracle Square – ***
5 – The Duomo – Cathedral of Pisa – ***
6 – The Campanile – The Tower of Pisa – ***
7 – The Baptistery – ***
8 – Camposanto Cemetery – ***
WHERE TO STAY
HOTELS
1 – La Perla del Borgo B&B – 4* – ££ – *** (We stayed here)
2 – Residenza d’Epoca Relais I Miracoli – 3* – ££
3 – Apartment Under the Tower – 4* – ££
4 – La Lu Cozy rooms 2 – 3* – ££
5 – Mediceo 42 – 3* – ££
6 – Retro B&B – 3* – ££
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation, search and book via the widget below:
WHERE TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 –La Pergoletta – *** – ££ (We ate here)
2 – Ristorante Enoteca Il Toscano – ££
3 – Osteria La Grotta – ££
4 – Pizzateca – *** – £ (We ate here)
5 – Numero 11 – ££
6 – Trattoria Pizzeria Il Montino – ££ – Next to La Perla del Borgo
7 – Antica Trattoria Il Campano – * – ££ (See my next Lucca post)
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like to read:
On this trip in Italy:
1 – Pisa
2 – Lucca
3 – Florence – Day 1
4 – Florence – Day 2
5 – Siena
6 – Riomaggiore – Cinque Terre
7 – Sentiero Azzuro, Vernazza, Corniglia & Manarola – Cinque Terre
8 – Monterosso – Cinque Terre
9 – Portofino
10 – La Spezia
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