PISA, ITALY

Pisa is one of those places that I was on the fence about visiting. I viewed it as one of those obligatory tourist destinations. Well, I was wrong! Pisa was so much more than I ever thought it would be.

We arrived on a rainy morning but it was still buzzing with tourists everywhere; however, it's a great place to people watch because everyone is taking those funny tourist pictures (we did too!). If you are within a couple hours drive of Pisa, I'd definitely recommend stopping for a quick visit.

HOW TO GET HERE

We had rented a car in Rome and dropped it off at the Pisa Airport but before we dropped the car off, we made our way into Pisa.

We parked here.

This parking lot is right across the street from the leaning tower and about a 5 minute walk.

If you are coming by way of train, the Pisa Centrale Station is a roughly 20 minute train or 25-30 minute walk to the tower area.

CLIMB THE LEANING TOWER

Now I didn't realize you could actually climb UP the leaning tower! So once I found out that was a possibility, we looked for the tower line and lined up (now this is NOT what you want to do).

After talking to some women in front of me in line, I quickly found out that you must buy tickets before getting in the line, as the entries to the tower are all timed.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

You can buy your tickets online ahead of time but if you are like us and want to buy tickets the day of, you can buy them at the on-site ticket offices or the museum.

Just be aware, you may have longer wait times than if you buy them in advance. We were there on a rainy April morning, so we only had to wait less than an hour until the next available entry time.

You will have to check your purse, bag, book bag, etc in a locker. The locker is included with your ticket BUT you can only store your items up to 30 minutes before your entry time. They have workers there to monitor the locker room and help you if needed.

Tickets cost 20 euros and include cathedral entrance as well. Additionally, there are other ticket options if you want to see more of the area attractions.

VIEWS FROM THE TOP

Once inside, you make your way up the 297 stairs via a spiral staircase. AND YES, YOU CAN ACTUALLY FEEL THE LEAN when you are ascending and descending the tower 🤯

At the top you are greeted with amazing views of the city and the cathedral. We spent a total of 30 minutes inside the tower which included the walk up and down the stairs and plenty of time to take pictures at the top without feeling rushed.

Once inside, you can spend as long as you like, there’s no time limit.

BEST CAFE VIEW

Now if you don't want to climb the tower, you can always search out the best photo spots around the tower or grab a drink and a pisa pizza 😏😆🍕 at a nearby cafe.

And do we have the best cafe location with the best view of the tower for you: Bistrot dell'Opera. This cafe is right above the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and this is the view you get:

We ended up getting the best seat in the place! The table had a 'reserved' sign on it but Craig asked if we could get this table and to our surprise they said yes. Moral of the story: always ask!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Even on a rainy day, Pisa was so much better than I had thought it would be! It was so fun taking the cheesy tourist pictures and climbing the tower. I would definitely recommended taking a day trip here.

If the weather was better, I would have loved to climb up the walls (Pisa is a walled city) to get a different vantage point.

If you’d like to see more of our time spent in Pisa, we made a YouTube video of our experience ↓

If you got this far, thanks for reading and remember to STAY CLASSLESS 😉