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Information about Pisa

A quiet city, Pisa is a renowned cultural destination of architectural interest beyond the commercial and industrial centre. The Romans founded the city, giving it a typical chessboard plan that now forms the base of the old city. In the period it was a lagoon city, on the sea. Later on, Pisa was the rich seigneury of Ugolino della Gherardesca, the mayor who inspired Dante Alighieri to one of the most celebrated passes of Hell. After mixed fortunes the city was conquered by Florence, which for scorn cut off all the house-towers of the city, symbols of power and supremacy, to the height of the shortest Florentine house-towers. As if this weren’t enough, the destruction continued with the slow loss of the port that was gradually filling in. Pisa today offers visitors splendid chances to visit the Campo dei Miracoli, showed in the images below, one of the most beautiful squares in the world and one of the symbols of tourist Italy.

The ‘Piazza dei Miracoli’ or ‘square of miracles’ where you will find the famous leaning tower is a mayor tourist attraction http://torre.duomo.pisa.it. The square is made up of several monuments: the cathedral, the tower, the baptistery, the ‘Campo Santo’ (ancient graveyard), the museum of the cathedral and the museum of the ‘Sinopie’ (the sketches that were found when the murals in the Campo Santo were destroyed as a result of bombing during the war). You can buy different types of tickets depending on how many of these monuments you want to visit.

Tickets to visit the monuments on the square can be bought from several different offices on the square: 1) ‘behind’ the tower; 2) in the entrance hall of the museum; 3) in the entrance hall of the museum of the Sinopie, and 4) at the entrance of the Campo Santo.
Tickets to climb the tower can be bought only at the ticket offices ‘behind’ the tower and in the entrance hall of the museum or online at www.opapisa.it. As only small numbers at a time are allowed onto the tower, you will have to reserve your visit (which is limited to 30-40 minutes) in advance. Please check your participant pack for more tourist information.
Another type of ticket will allow you to visit even more of Pisa’s monuments and museums and is valid for more than one day.

But limiting a visit to Pisa to only the Campo dei Miracoli would be an error because the city has much more to offer from an urban and historical-artistic point of view; for example, whoever wants to enrich and complete his or her knowledge of sculpture and painting from the golden centuries of the city must not neglect a visit to the Pisan museums.

Things to see

Piazza dei Miracoli: a name attributed to D'Annunzio, it is the symbolic monument of the city and known throughout the world. The large green space is a perfect stage to make the white marble of the Battistero and the tower stand out, let alone the Sinopie Museum. With city walls constructed for defence from the troops of Federico Barbarossa, this area has remained intact and secluded.
Terme Romane: little archaeological area said also to have been the baths of Nero.
Palazzo Medici: a prefecture today, it was built in the 13th Century and restored to 800 in Neogothic style.
Palazzo Toscanelli: seat of the State Archives.
Museo Nazionale San Matteo: an ancient convent of the nuns of San Matteo, where a beautiful collection of sculptures and Pisan and Tuscan paintings from the 12th to 14th centuries are preserved.
Orto Botanico: the site in Via Luca Ghini 5 contains many types of national and foreign green plants.
Ponte di Mezzo: it is the most important street in the urban area south of the Arno, and it divides the quarters of Sant’Antonio and San Martino.

Orto Botanico		Ponte di Mezzo

Other interesting things to see are the Comune and the Church of Spina.

Comune		Church of Spina

You can also visit Piazza dei Cavalieri, showed in the image below.

Piazza dei Cavaliari

Travelling to Pisa

Pisa’s airport ‘Galileo Galilei’ is only 2 kilometres from the city (centre). You can almost walk to the city centre, but it is better to take a taxi or a bus:

• Taxis from the airport to downtown (hotels) will cost about € 10-12 (Radiotaxi 050-541600).
• A “Collective Taxi” service leaves every 10 minutes from Pisa International Airport to the Train Station and to the Leaning Tower.
  Rate per person Pisa International Airport. – Train Station € 2,50; Pisa International Airport - Leaning Tower € 4,00. Maximum 8 passengers per car. The “Collective Taxi” stand is located on the right just outside of the arrival exit doors.
• Bus number 3 takes you in about 5 minutes downtown or to the railway station. Tickets can be bought at the information desk in the airport (Ufficio Informazioni). The information office also provides tourist information, functions as left luggage office, issues flight insurance policies, and sells telephone cards, bus tickets and train tickets to all national destinations.
  

More information

http://www.pisaonline.it
http://www.comune.pisa.it/turismo/index-gb.htm