The Leaning Tower of Pisa, with its distinctive tilt, is one of the world's most famous landmarks. Construction began in 1173, but by the time the third floor was added in 1185, the tower had already started to lean due to the soft, sandy ground. Originally intended as a freestanding bell tower for the Cathedral of Pisa, its completion was delayed by construction pauses and adjustments, finally finishing in 1372. Today, the tower tilts at about four degrees and draws millions of visitors each year who brave its 294 steps.

The Square of Miracles, or Piazza del Duomo, ranks among the world's most stunning plazas. Its centerpiece, the famous Leaning Tower, stands boldly beside the majestic Cathedral with its gleaming white marble facade.

The Cathedral of Pisa, the oldest structure on the Piazza dei Miracoli, was begun in 1064 outside the city's walls to showcase Pisa's confidence against potential attacks. The construction was funded by war booty, notably from a victorious raid on the Saracens in Palermo. This cathedral, along with St. Mark's Basilica, is one of the first monumental buildings of medieval Italy, making it particularly significant in art history. It was built either before or around the same time as the Venetian basilica, during a period when both powerful maritime republics were vying to assert their cultural dominance. The origins of the Persian and Byzantine influences in its design remain unclear.

The Baptistery rises like a marble crown on the Piazza dei Miracoli. Begun in 1153 under the direction of Diotisalvi, this remarkable structure combines Romanesque austerity with Gothic elegance. Standing 55 meters tall and over 100 meters in diameter, it is the largest baptistery in the world. Its two distinct dome halves create a stunning play of colors at sunrise and sunset.

On the edge of the famous Cathedral Square lies the Campo Santo, or Holy Field. This cemetery was partially built with soil from Golgotha, a sacred place believed to cause bodies buried there to decay within 24 hours. Crusaders brought this holy soil back to Italy.

On the way to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, this photogenic square is worth a detour. Once the city's political and administrative heart, it’s now a showcase of Renaissance architecture. Impressive buildings like the Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri and the Palazzo della Carovana, former seat of the Order of the Knights of Santo Stefano, surround the square. The Palazzo's facade, adorned with intricate sgraffito decorations and busts of Roman Grand Masters, whispers stories of the past.

The Palazzo Blu, a former 14th-century noble palace, houses a small art museum. Inside, you'll find a permanent exhibition of Tuscan paintings and antique furniture, along with temporary art exhibitions—including a few pieces by Galileo Galilei. It's an ideal retreat for art lovers looking to escape the crowds and summer heat.

Santa Maria della Spina, a gem of Pisan Gothic architecture, was built in 1230 from white marble. Despite its small size, it impresses with an intricate façade adorned with statues and ornate pinnacles. The church was named "Spina" because it originally housed a thorn from Christ’s Crown of Thorns.

The Botanical Garden of Pisa, founded in 1543 by botanist Luca Ghini, is recognized as the world's oldest university botanical garden. Initially located on the Arno's banks, it was moved to its current site in 1591 and has since served as a center for the study of medicinal plants.

Pisa Airport (PSA), also known as Galileo Galilei, is Tuscany’s main airport and a key international hub for the region. In 2022, it handled around 4.5 million passengers, ranking among Italy’s 10 busiest airports. It serves as a major gateway to Europe, particularly for low-cost airlines like Ryanair.

The palace, known as the Palazzo dei Cavalieri, is a magnificent example of Renaissance architecture. Designed by Master Architect Giorgio Vasari and built between 1562 and 1564, it once served as the headquarters of the Order of the Knights of Saint Stephen. The building's elegant facade—decorated with marble busts and sgraffiti depicting astrological symbols and allegories—reflects the power and legacy of the Medici dynasty. A grand central staircase, renovated in 1821, enhances its monumental effect.

Most tourists don’t realize that Pisa boasts not just one, but three leaning towers. With an impressive 5-degree tilt, the Church of San Michele has the most tilted bell tower in the entire city. Built in the 12th century on swampy ground, this church rose from the remnants of an older structure. Its name, Scalzi (meaning barefoot), originates from the monks of Pulsano sul Gargano (Apulia), known as the Barefooted, who founded both the church and the adjoining monastery.

The marble pulpit in the Baptistery of Pisa, crafted by Niccolò Pisano in 1260, is considered a masterpiece of the Proto-Renaissance. The hexagonal basin is supported by seven columns, three of which rest on intricately carved lions. The parapet features five detailed reliefs depicting New Testament scenes, including the Annunciation, Nativity, and Last Judgment. This work is particularly notable for its blend of classical influences with Gothic elements, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of European sculpture.

The underrated National Museum of San Matteo, often overlooked by tourists, holds one of Italy’s most significant collections of medieval art, spanning from the 12th century to the Renaissance. The museum showcases Christian artworks, ceramics, and exquisite illuminated manuscripts by renowned artists like Beato Angelico, Simone Martini, Masaccio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Donatello.

San Nicola is a church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

San Michele in Borgo is a Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

Santa Caterina d'Alessandria is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno is a Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is a pre-eminent example of Tuscan Romanesque church architecture. The church is also locally known as Duomo vecchio.

Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri is a church in central Pisa located on Piazza dei Cavalieri. Construction began on 17 April 1565 in order to build a church for the Order of Knights of St Stephan, founded by the Grand Duke Cosimo de' Medici to fight Saracen piracy in the Mediterranean. The project with designs and oversight by Giorgio Vasari and David Fortini was to build a church on the site of an older church called San Sebastiano alle Fabbriche Maggiori, which dated at least to 1074. The new church on the site was consecrated by 21 December 1569. The facade, in white marble was designed by Don Giovanni de' Medici, illegitimate son of Cosimo I, with the help of Alessandro Pieroni; their designs were chosen over Vasari’s original plan. An inscription commemorates completion during the reign of Ferdinando I de' Medici. The bell-tower, also designed by Vasari, was completed by 1572 by Giovanni Fancelli. The main altar designs were by Pier Francesco Silvani. Many alterations and additions were proposed and made over the next two centuries, including plans by Gherardo Mechini, Paolo Guidotti, Ranieri Gherardi, Torpè Donati, Alessandro Gherardesca, Florido Galli, Niccolò Matas, and Pasquale Poccianti. The final reconstruction in 1859, completed after the suppression of the order, creates the clearer interior systematization of columns we see today.

Santa Maria del Carmine is a Roman Catholic church in Pisa, Italy known for its altarpiece.

San Francesco de' Ferri is a church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. Mentioned for the first time in a document from 1233, the church was rebuilt starting from 1261 by will of archbishop Federico Visconti. The church was under the patronage of the Pisane noble families, who owned a series of private chapels for their burials; the Franciscan were limited to the administration of the cult. The works, directed by Giovanni di Simone, ended in 1270 and included also the slender bell tower. The marble façade is from 1603. The interior was revamped in the same age, with paintings by Jacopo da Empoli, Domenico Passignano and Santi di Tito. In the transept are frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, Galileo Chini and an altar frontal by Tommaso Pisano. The sacristy has frescoes by Taddeo di Bartolo with Histories of Mary, while the Capitolium Hall has frescoes by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini with Histories of the life of Christ. The rectangular cloister is from the 14th century.

The city walls, built in the 12th century, offer a 3 km route with stunning elevated views of Pisa. From the well-preserved walls, you can take in the city’s sights while escaping the crowds.

The Church of the Santo Sepolcro is a religious edifice in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. Built in the early 12th century, it was designed by Diotisalvi, who also designed the Baptistery of Pisa Cathedral forty years later. It has an octagonal plan and, until the 16th century, it was surrounded by a portico. The central tambour, supported by eight ogival arches, is super-elevated and is surmounted by a conic cusp. The attribution to the Holy Sepulchre is a reference to the latter's relics which were carried in Pisa by archbishop Dagobert after his participation to the First Crusade. The structure resembles indeed the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, conquered by the crusaders in 1099. The portals have decorations with animals and lions' heads in marble. The interior, restored in 1720 in Baroque style, was destroyed in the 19th century. What remains include a bust-reliquary of St. Ubaldesca with a pail which, according to the tradition, belonged to the saint; the tombstone of Marie Mancini, Mazarin's niece; and a 15th-century panel of the Madonna with Child.

The Cittadella Nuova, now called the Giardino di Scotto or Giardino Scotto is an old fortress in Pisa.

The Museum of Ancient Ships is a museum in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The museum exhibits ancient ships and artifacts. The exhibition space is within the ancient halls of the Medici Arsenals.

The National Museum of the Royal Palace is a museum housed in a former royal palazzo at 46 Lungarno Antonio Pacinotti in Pisa, Italy. The building was designed in 1583 by Bernardo Buontalenti for Francesco I de' Medici and - like the Signoria in Pisa - replaced the Medici palace near the church and monastery of San Matteo. Housing paintings, sculpture, tapestries and decorative arts, since December 2014 the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali has placed the museum under the control of the Polo museale della Toscana, renamed the Direzione regionale Musei in December 2019.

San Sisto is a church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. It was consecrated in 1133 but previously it had been already used as the seat of the most important notary act of the Pisan commune. It was built in a Pisane-Romanesque style in stone. The façade is divided in three parts divided by pilaster strips, with a mullioned window and arches in the upper part which continues on the whole exterior. Notable is the typical local decoration with Islamic ceramic basins from the 10th-11th centuries. The interior has a nave and two aisles, divided by columns with ancient Roman capitals, with hut-shaped ceiling. It houses also an Arabic tombstone, the copy of a 14th-century Madonna with Child and the rudder of a Pisane galley.

Sant'Antonio Abate is a Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church, located facing Piazza Sant'Antonio in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

This building at the Duomo Square serves as the ticket office for the main attractions in Pisa. However, it is also a museum in its own right. Inside, you'll find a unique collection of preliminary drawings for frescoes that once graced the walls of the Camposanto Monumentale. The museum is particularly appealing to those with an interest in art history.

The Palazzo del Collegio Puteano is a building in Piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa, Italy. The palace occupies the whole western part of the square and makes a corner with Via Corsica street. The palace, located near to the Church of St Rocco, was built in the present form between 1549 and 1598, by joining a group of three previous houses. In 1605, it was given in perpetual rent to the Knights of St Stephen, to host some students from Piedmont, by order of Archbishop Carlo Antonio Dal Pozzo, from whom the name Puteano is derived. Between 1608 and 1609 the façade was decorated with allegoric frescoes by Giovanni Stefano Marucelli. After the suppression of the Knights, the college was closed in 1925, but it opened again in 1930 when the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa used the building as Home of the Student of the university. In 1969, the palace underwent a major restoration, and currently belongs to Scuola Normale and hosts the research center of mathematics and the guesthouse.

The Baths of Nero are an archaeological site near the Porta a Lucca in Pisa, then the Roman city of Colonia Pisana. Now below street level, they are the only Roman remains still standing in the city and form a thermae complex.

San Frediano is a Romanesque-style Roman Catholic church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. It now functions as the official church of the University of Pisa.

The statue of Cosimo I de' Medici stands in the middle of Knights' Square of Pisa, just in front of Palazzo della Carovana. It was commissioned by Grand Duke Ferdinando I in 1596 to the Franco-Flemish sculptor Pietro Francavilla, who executed it in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition. The statue celebrates Ferdinando's father as the first Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen and is a civic symbol of the hegemony of Florence. The Grand Duke Cosimo is represented in the robes of Grand Master, standing on a high pedestal, in the act of subduing a dolphin, symbol of his domination over the seas. The fountain, in front of the pedestal, was also erected by Francavilla. It has a basin in the form of a shell decorated with two grotesque monsters. The statue has been damaged in the course of time.

Santa Cristina is a Neoclassical-style, Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is located on the Lungarno Gambacorti.

The Palazzo Vecchio de' Medici, also called the Palazzo della Prefettura is a Gothic revival-style palace located on Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini #7, in the city of Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

San Zeno is a church and a former abbey in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The church is documented going back to 1029. It was part of a monastery built over pre-existing edifices, and, until the 15th century, it had also a hospital. In the 12th century it was held by the Camaldolese monks. The church has a nave and two aisles. The façade is preceded by a portico supported by pilasters and a central columns. The second row has mullioned windows and decorations with lozenges and small circular windows, with ceramic basins by Islamic masters. The interior has ancient Roman capitals and traces of medieval paintings.

The Palazzo Lanfreducci, also called the Palazzo Upezzinghi after 19th century owners, or the Palazzo Alla Giornata is a late-Mannerist- or early Baroque-style palace located on Lungarno Pacinotti #43, on the north bank of the Arno river, in the city of Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

Sant'Andrea Forisportam is a church building, now deconsecrated, in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. It is currently used as a theatre for performances, most recently: Fonterossa Day on 16 April 2023.

The Piazza delle Gondole is a piazza in Pisa, Italy. It is next to one of the city gates in the medieval walls. The square includes a small basin where boats used to dock.

Santa Chiara is a Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy, a few paces away from the Piazza dei Miracoli.

San Pietro in Vinculis is a Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

Santa Croce in Fossabanda is a Renaissance-style Roman Catholic church and monastery in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

San Paolo all'Orto is a Romanesque-style, former Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

The Domus Galilaeana is a cultural and scientific institute and library, dedicated to the history of science, located in via Santa Maria #26, in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy. Currently, the Domus Galilaeana houses a library with more than 40,000 books and important files appertaining to scientists of the 20th century.

The Palazzo delle Vedove is a palace in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The palace, built in the 12th–14th centuries, is sited land which in antique times was the domus of the Bocci family of Pisa. Detail of the medieval edifice can still be seen in the exterior, including a marble quadruple mullioned window partially covered by a rectangular window. On one of the sides was once a portico. The palace was largely renovated in the 16th century and was subsequently used to house the widows of the Medici family. Two covered passages connected the edifice to the Torre De Cantone and then to the church of San Nicola, where the gentlewomen could attend the mass without passing in the streets.

The Palazzo Lanfranchi-Toscanelli, presently the local State Archives, is a Renaissance-style palace located on Lungarno Mediceo #30, in the city of Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy. Since 1913 the building has housed the Archivio di Stato di Pisa.

The Madonna dei Galletti is a Baroque-style, Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

San Silvestro is a former church in Pisa, Italy, facing piazza San Silvestro. It is now deconsecrated.

The Palazzo Lanfranchi is a palace located on Lungarno Galileo Galilei #8, in the city of Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

San Martino is a Roman Catholic church in Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy, facing piazza San Martino, on the left bank of the Arno river.

Santi Jacopo e Filippo or Santi Iacopo e Filippo is an ancient church found in Via San Michele degli Scalzi in Pisa, Italy. Documents exist as belonging to an Augustinian abbey by 1110, but it is believed that a church was situated at the site just after the year 1000. The Romanesque architecture includes a half-finished facade. Restored in the 17th and 18th century, the interior was frescoed by Giuseppe Melani and his brother Francesco with stories of the saints.

San Torpé is a Roman Catholic church located in Largo del Parlascio #20 in the town of Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.

San Domenico is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church in Pisa, Italy. It was erected in 1385, under the guidance of Pietro Gambacorti, adjacent to a Dominican Convent. Pietro's daughter, the beatified Chiara Gambacorti, resided in that convent. In 1724 through 1732, the interior was decorated in the ornate late-Baroque style. The church and the adjacent convent were extensively damaged during World War II. It is today in use by the Order of the Knights of Malta. The interior is decorated by medieval frescoes and canvases by Giovanni Battista Tempesti depicting the Life of the beatified Chiara. The church currently hosts a relic of Blessed Gerard, the founder of the Order of Malta.