Pisa

Pisa: Beyond the Three Hours Most People Give It

Most people give Pisa three hours. They arrive from Florence by regional train, photograph the leaning tower with their hands positioned to appear to be holding it up, and leave. This is a legitimate use of Pisa. The city is small enough that the Piazza dei Miracoli complex is the main event, and if you do it properly that is your afternoon covered. But Pisa deserves knowing about for what it actually is, which is more than a prop for photographs.

The Piazza dei Miracoli

The combination ticket for the Cathedral, Baptistery, Camposanto cemetery, and associated museums costs EUR 27. The Tower requires a separate timed ticket (EUR 20) for the climb, with slots every 30 minutes; book online at least several days in advance in summer because on-site slots sell out by mid-morning.

The Tower is 56 metres tall and leans 3.97 degrees from vertical. Between 1990 and 2001, engineers removed 70 tonnes of soil from beneath the north side to stabilise it; the lean had been 5.5 degrees before the work and would have eventually toppled the structure. The intervention was successful. The lean remains. The 294-step climb puts you on an upper terrace where the tilt is felt in the body before it’s processed intellectually. Galileo allegedly dropped cannonballs from here to demonstrate equal acceleration – the story is probably apocryphal, but its persistence is its own kind of cultural data.

The Cathedral is the more sophisticated building. The Romanesque facade was completed in 1092 and the bronze main door is by Bonanno Pisano. Inside, Giovanni Pisano’s pulpit – finished in 1310 – is among the finest pieces of medieval sculpture in Italy. Most visitors spend 10 minutes inside. 40 is more appropriate.

The Baptistery has exceptional acoustics. A guide or willing visitor will demonstrate by singing a single sustained note; the circular space fills with harmonic overtones that seem to come from everywhere at once. The effect is arresting enough that people stop talking.

The Camposanto is a cemetery cloister built around soil supposedly brought from Golgotha. Its medieval frescoes were severely damaged when Allied bombing in 1944 melted the lead roof and the molten metal fused with the paintings. The surviving fragments and sinopie (preparatory drawings) in the adjacent museum are more interesting than the casual phrasing “damaged frescoes” suggests.

Beyond the Piazza

Pisa has 50,000 university students and a city that functions for residents rather than tourists. The Piazza dei Cavalieri, a 10-minute walk from the Tower, is where the Scuola Normale Superiore occupies the Palazzo della Carovana designed by Vasari in 1562. No tourists; just students on bikes. The Arno embankment is pleasant for walking.

For eating, avoid the restaurants immediately adjacent to the Tower. The streets north of the Arno near Via Sant’Antonio have cheaper trattorias: Il Campano on Via Cavour does a two-course lunch with wine for EUR 15 to 18.

Getting There

Pisa airport connects to a wide range of European destinations. The People Mover rail link from the airport to Pisa Centrale station takes 5 minutes for EUR 2.70. From Florence, it’s an hour by regional train for EUR 8 to 9.