Discover Pisa

Pisa is a Tuscan university city of about 99,000 people that the world knows for one building, and the gap between those two facts is the whole story of visiting it. The Piazza del Duomo — the cathedral, the baptistery, the Camposanto and the campanile that will not stand up straight — was inscribed by UNESCO in 1987 under four criteria including the first, and it is one of the most completely realised architectural ensembles in Europe. Almost everyone who comes sees it in ninety minutes and leaves.

That is a defensible way to use a day, but it means most visitors never meet Pisa. The city has run a university since 1343, produced Galileo, and was one of the four great maritime republics of the Mediterranean before Genoa broke it at the Battle of Meloria in 1284. The riverfront along the Arno, the daily market at Piazza delle Vettovaglie and the long arcaded Borgo Stretto belong to a working town, not a monument.

The square, and what is in it

The Leaning Tower is the cathedral's free-standing bell tower, begun on 9 August 1173 and not finished until 1372 — the delays are why it stands at all, since the pauses let the subsoil settle between stages. By 1990 the lean had reached 5.5 degrees and the tower was closed; engineering between 1993 and 2001 brought it back to 3.97 degrees, and it reopened on 15 December 2001.

The other three buildings are the reason to stay longer than a photograph. The cathedral is the model for a whole Pisan Romanesque style that spread across Tuscany and Sardinia. The circular baptistery is the largest in Italy and has an acoustic its custodians demonstrate aloud. The Camposanto Monumentale is a cloistered burial ground whose frescoes were badly damaged by fire in the Second World War and have been under restoration for decades.

The one thing to settle before you come

The tower is not a walk-in. Entry is by timed slot, tickets release 90 days ahead, arriving late means losing the slot with no refund, and — the rule that catches families hardest — children under 8 are not admitted at all. The climb is 251 steps on worn, sloping marble. Everything else in the square can be entered on the day.

Where Pisa sits

The city straddles the Arno about 10 kilometres from the sea, on flat alluvial ground only four metres above it. That ground is the reason for the lean and the reason for the republic: Pisa was a port until its harbour silted up, and the coastline has been moving away from it ever since.

Can I just turn up and climb the tower? No, and this is the mistake that spoils most Pisa days. Entry is by timed slot, tickets open 90 days before the visit, and the operator is explicit: “if you are late you will not be allowed in and you will not be refunded”. Unused tickets are not refundable either.

Can children climb it? Only from eight years old. The operator bars “children who will not have turned 8 by the end of this year” for safety reasons, and under-18s must be accompanied by an adult. This is the rule that most often breaks a family's plan, because nothing about the square suggests it.

How hard is the climb? It is 251 steps on foot, takes about 30 minutes in total, and the floor is uneven and slippery — marble worn smooth and tilted. The operator does not recommend it for anyone with cardiovascular or muscular problems. You also cannot take a bag up: luggage goes in the cloakroom first, and only small bags up to 20x30x38 cm are accepted at all.

Is the rest of the square worth a ticket? Yes, and more than the tower is. The cathedral, the baptistery with its demonstrated acoustic, and the Camposanto are each enterable on the day with a combined ticket, and they are why the piazza is a World Heritage Site rather than a curiosity.

Is a few hours enough? For the square, yes. For Pisa, no — and the difference is about a twelve-minute walk. The arcaded Borgo Stretto, the market at Piazza delle Vettovaglie and the Arno embankments are a different city from the one most visitors see.

When is admission free? On 1 and 2 November, and on the evenings of 24 July and 9 August from 20:30 to 23:00 — by advance reservation for the baptistery, Camposanto and the two museums, and without reservation for the cathedral, subject to capacity.