A Short Day Trip To Pisa, Italy

I love Tuscany, a region in central of Italy, for its peaceful environment and friendly people. Apart from Florence, sienna and the highland wine region of Chianti, the next place I love to visit is Pisa. It is the capital city of Pisa Province located on the mouth of the famous River Arno before joining to the Ligurian Sea in western coast of Italy. If you are coming from florence, River Arno is also the main river in florence separating the new and the historic centre of Florence, with the famous Ponte Vecchio crossing over .

Spending a day in Pisa is always a pleasant and relaxing Sunday activities as art galleries, museums, great architecture, and great foods could be found everywhere but all in its small city centre. Pisa is the best travel destination to do a one day walking tour while en route to either Florence or Rome as there are frequent trains or buses connecting Pisa with other Tuscan cities such as Florence and Lucca, as well as major Southern Italian cities such as Rome and Naples. I would store my luggage in the station storing machine for €3, and go explore the city!

The main attraction of Pisa is definitely the world famous Leaning Tower. However, a slow walk around the city centre had really surprised me with many other architectural and artistic marvels of this beautiful city. To get to the Pisa Tower from main train station of Pisa Centrale, I needed to walk the pedestrian streets for like half an hour, in normal pace. However, I’ve spent a lot more time than that as those interesting sights, shops, and restaurants had me slowed down the pace.

There are many restaurants and cafes along the street at River Arno south where I had my breakfast as well as high tea. When I reached to the River Arno, standing on the middle of Ponte di Mezzo, the scene was so beautiful and making me high that I was feeling like staying there forever and take photos endlessly! Not only that, I detoured my route to walk along the river instead to explore the Museo de San Matteo, one of the biggest Tuscan Renaissance art and history museum on river north Lungarno Mediceo street. Besides, Santa Maria della Spina is also a small but great Gothic church on river south Lungarno Gambacorti street, that houses a thorn from Jesus’s crown.

After detouring back to Via Gugielmo Oberdan en route to Campo dei Miracoli, I found another travel wonder of Cavalieri Square, with many tremendous historic architectures such as Palazzo della Carovana, the main Scuola Normale Superiore building, with an elaborate façade; Palazzo dell’Orologio (Clock Palace), a XIV century building that has replaced the Torre della Fame (tower of hunger); Church of San Rocco, the Rectory, Palazzo Carovana and Palazzo dei Dodici. All these properties are part of the famous Pisa University which is right behind the square.

The walk ended at Campo dei Miracoli, where the Leaning Tower is, but my exploration didn’t quite over yet. While tourists are all eyeing on the tower, there are actually many other things to see on the field, such as the round roofed Baptistry, the splendid Duomo de Pisa cathedral, Campo Santo Monumentale cemetary and art museums, which house a huge collections of exciting arts, sculptures and paintings. I wandered around and watched people snapping photos with the ‘standard’ pose: ‘Holding’ the leaning tower with both hands.

There is a row of stalls along the side walk of Piazza del Duomo selling souvenirs such as small statues of Pisa tower. I bought few of them. 🙂 I had a couple of pizzas for my late lunch at one of the pizzeria around the square.

Towards the end of my day in Pisa, I walked back to the train station, picked up my luggage, catch my next train and continue my journey to Rome, which is a totally different city that made me missed the peaceful Pisa immediately. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.