One of the famous stops for everyone that visits Tuscany area or Flornece, Pisa is just 1h away by train from Florence, so it makes a great day trip to take a picture with the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Pisa is a small city, and you can see the most important historic sites in under 6h, including a scheduled visit to the Tower of Pisa located next to the Cathedral of Pisa, in Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of miracles). Is good to make an online booking to visit the tower as each hour there are allowed only a limited number of perosns inside. Using the same ticket you can also visit the cathedral.
The city is best known for its leaning tower, but its also home of more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces and various bridges across the Arno river.
Some facts about the Leaning Tower of Pisa:
- The construction started in 1173, and was finished in 1399.
- There are 296 steps to the top.
- It is situated behind Pisa's cathedral and is the third oldest structure in the city's Cathedral Square after the cathedral and the Pisa Baptistry.
- The height of the tower is 55.86 metres (183.27 feet) from the ground on the low side and 56.67 metres (185.93 feet) on the high side.
- Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped two cannonballs of different masses from the tower to demonstrate that their speed of descent was independent of their mass.
- The tower was closed to the public on January 7, 1990, after more than two decades of stabilisation studies.
- In May 2008, engineers announced that the tower had been stabilized such that it had stopped moving for the first time in its history.
Piazza dei Miracoli (Piazza del Duomo):
The square is dominated by four great religious edifices: the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry, the Campanile, and the Camposanto Monumentale.
The heart of the Piazza del Duomo is the Duomo, the medieval cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa, the construction started in 1064 and is dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta (St. Mary of the Assumption). You can admire the astonishing façade, of grey marble and white stone set with discs of coloured marble.
The Baptistery, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, stands opposite the west
end of the Duomo. The round Romanesque building was begun in 1153 and was completed in 1363.
It is the largest baptistery in Italy, 54.86 m high, with a diameter of 34.13 m. The Pisa Baptistery is an example of the transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style.
Palazzo della Carovana
Was built between 1562–1564 by Giorgio Vasari for the headquarters of the Knights of St. Stephen. The façade is characterized by a complex scheme with sgraffiti representing allegorical figures and zodiacal signs, designed by Vasari himself and sculpted by Tommaso di Battista del Verrocchio and Alessandro Forzori, coupled to busts and marble crests. The current paintings date however to the 19th-20th centuries.
