Explore Italy: Pisa
/Pisa is a rather plain city with the exception of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the surrounding piazza and Duomo. Tourists throng there, so you’d think it would be a top pick on an Italian vacation, yet people I talk to would always say that Pisa is boring. So is it worth going? Yes and no. Pisa may not be the most exciting of Italian cities, but it does have its few magnificent things to see. If it’s your first time in Italy, I wouldn’t recommend Pisa as a top pick, but it’s worth seeing at some point and easy to get to.
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Pisa in a nutshell
Location: Tuscany, Italy
Best known for: The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Days needed to explore: 1+ - while you can easily see all Pisa has to offer in one day (hint, it’s all in one spot), I’m never going to discourage someone from making a smaller city a home base for doing other day trips. That said, if you’re spending one or more nights in Pisa just to discover Pisa better, I would encourage you to consider other cities instead, but that’s definitely your prerogative!
What to see and do:
La Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) - within this expansive piazza you will find the top attractions of Pisa: The Leaning Tower, the Duomo, the Baptistry, and the Camposanto Monumentale
La Torre Pendente di Pisa (Leaning Tower of Pisa) - The famous tower, choose your side to take a picture, either “holding it up” or “pushing it over” (paid entrance to climb)
Il Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta
Il Battistero (The Baptistry) - The largest baptistry in Italy (paid entrance)
Camposanto Monumentale - considered a holy place because here the crusaders brought holy earth from Golgotha (where Jesus was crucified), just outside the city of Jerusalem. There are many of the most illustrious of Pisa buried here.
Stroll along the Arno River
Walk down Borgo Stretto and Borgo Largo or “Il Borgo” as the Pisani call it; the main street of the historic Pisa center. Shopping and eating a plenty!
Enjoy the night life; Pisa is a young university town with plenty of energy in the evening/night hours
Established: Unknown - it could be by the Greeks, could be the Ligurians; Roman and Etruscan traces have been confirmed. Some say it was most probably founded by the Etruscans.
Typical foods to try: Much of the Cucina Pisana is very similar to the rest of Tuscany. Many typical dishes are simple, nutritious, and what we now call “poor” dishes; whatever can be grown or hunted in the area. Here are some ideas:
Bordatino alla pisana - a type of bean minestrone with black cabbage and maybe a bit of lard or prosciutto; a winter dish
Pallette - a type of polenta usually served with with a meat ragù; another dish best eaten in the winter months, from September on
Pappa al pomodoro - a thick tomato basil bread soup, very traditionally Tuscan. While the description might sound strange, this is one of my favorites! In fact, you can make it easily yourself, find the recipe here.
Pasta e ceci - pasta with chickpeas
Trippa pisana - a cow’s third stomach (these typical plates are just making you die to come to Pisa, aren’t they??) Don’t be fooled by the ick factor, I’ve tried both trippa and its Florentine cousin, lampredotto, and they’re both surprisingly delicious if you can get over what you’re eating!
Dishes featuring seafood - a personal favorite is baccalà, or salted cod
Cantuccini col Vin Santo - Cantuccini cookies (like what Americans call biscotti) served with “holy wine”
Why I like Pisa
Don’t get the idea from my frank assessment of Pisa that I’m not a fan. On the contrary, I had a blast in Pisa and would gladly go again. Traveling is more about the company you have than the places you see.
Pisa is about an hour train ride from Florence and the ticket costs less than 10euro. It’s one of the easiest day trips you could ask for. Pisa itself isn’t hard to navigate, once you exit the train station the walk to the Piazza dei Miracoli and main sights is about a half hour pretty much straight north. Or “that way” if directions aren’t your thing.
My husband and I went in March and stayed overnight. Our cheap hotel with the stinky bathroom is not one I’d recommend, but it added to the character of our trip. Moral of the story, if you use Booking.com, make sure to read ALL fine print and read lots of reviews, especially the negative ones, before booking. They always appear nicer on the internet. I would’ve just as soon done Pisa in a day trip, but my husband and I had been talking about going for long enough that we decided we might as well make an overnighter of it. Despite it being the low season, there were still plenty of crowds. They were all concentrated at the Leaning Tower, as you can see from some of the photos, the rest of Pisa is quite tranquil during the day, but by night the city comes alive with locals and students out for a dinner or drinks and a good time. My idea of a good time is gelato, so we hunted down a gelateria. It took a surprisingly long time to find one open for being a student and tourist town, every single gelateria was closed. Sure, like I said March is the low season but usually gelato shops close around January/February, not ALL of them in March when Jenny wants a gelato. We did eventually find one open, Gelateria de’ Coltelli, and it was good! I recommend it.
Pisa was also my first experience with Indian food. I know a lot of people who love Indian food, so I suggested we try one of the numerous Indian restaurants we had passed. Really, so many Indian restaurants in Pisa. I’ve since discovered I love Indian food but that was a very bad introduction. Despite asking numerous times, water wasn’t brought to our table until after our meal was served. So thirsty, pant pant. We were charged for two bottles of water, despite only having one. Then there was this weird green mango appetizer that was so incredibly sour and the pits about took my tooth out. Then we were brought two dishes when we had ordered three, and one wasn’t even what we ordered. Indian food in Pisa? Ummmm I’ll wager any of the others would be better?? Haha! The whole experience was very amusing and a very memorable meal. Makes me laugh to this day.
The Piazza dei Miracoli is really very stunning, I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. Pictures don’t do it justice!
While Pisa is no Paris or Rome, it’s still a fun stop!
