Standing Under the Tilt in the Piazza dei Miracoli
Walk north out of central Pisa and the street opens onto a lawn of startling green, and there it is: a white marble cylinder that simply refuses to stand straight. The Leaning Tower is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral, and it leans nearly four degrees because of an unstable foundation. It stands in the Piazza del Duomo — the Piazza dei Miracoli, or Square of Miracles — alongside the cathedral and the Baptistry, all three of them part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site declared in 1987. You are not coming to see a photograph you already know; you are coming to stand beneath 14,500-odd tonnes of marble that has been settling, sinking and being coaxed upright for more than eight centuries, and to climb it.
Climbing the Staircase and Reading the Stones
The tower was built in three stages over 199 years, beginning when the foundations were laid in August 1173. The ground floor is a blind arcade articulated by engaged columns with classical Corinthian capitals; above, loggias of arches echo the cathedral façade. Because the engineers built the upper floors taller on one side to compensate for the tilt, the tower is curved — look for it as you circle the base.
Inside, you climb. The staircase is long — the sources count it at 294, 296 or 273 steps depending on the account, with two fewer on the north-facing side of the seventh floor — and it spirals up through the hollow core. At the top you reach the bell-chamber, added in 1372 by Tommaso di Andrea Pisano, who harmonised its Gothic elements with the tower's Romanesque style. Seven bells hang there, one for each note of the major scale; the largest was installed in 1655. The climb is the point: the view from the top is the reward, and the tilt is something you feel in your legs on the way up and see in the horizon when you reach the arcade.
- Climbing requires a reservation-based ticket with a specific entry time; you can buy on the day, but entry may be 45 minutes to two hours after purchase, and buying online in advance is advised.
- Children who will not have turned eight by the end of the year are not permitted to enter; under-18s must be accompanied by an adult, and ID may be requested.
- While you wait for your slot, the rest of the square fills the time: the cathedral, the Baptistry and the Camposanto are all within a few steps.
Making the Most of the Square of Miracles
Give the piazza a half day at least, and treat the tower as one part of it. The Duomo di Pisa is a splendid Romanesque cathedral with double aisles and a cupola, a huge apse mosaic partly by Cimabue, and a fine late Gothic pulpit by Giovanni Pisano; entry is free, but you must obtain a pass beforehand at a nearby ticket office. The Baptistry of St. John is a large round Romanesque dome with sculptured decorations, a pulpit by Nicola Pisano and an octagonal font — and if you climb it, you get a view with the Leaning Tower in your photographs. Stand inside and listen: at intervals the guard at the entrance demonstrates the echo, and you can sing a long note yourself and hear it turn into chords around the dome.
The Camposanto Monumentale holds ancient Roman sarcophagi, medieval frescoes by the "Master of the Triumph of Death", and a 19th-century statue of Leonardo Fibonacci, a native of the city. The Museo delle Sinopie preserves the under-drawings discovered when wartime murals were detached from the cemetery walls, and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo holds sculpture and painting from the cathedral and cemetery, including bronze griffins from Syria captured by the Crusaders — its balcony gives you a good angle on the tower and the Duomo.
On timing: the tower opens daily, with earlier starts and later closes in the warmer months and shorter days in winter, so check the current hours before you go. Mornings and the shoulder seasons give you a quieter lawn and softer light on the marble. And if you want the tower from an unusual angle, walk the 3 km circuit along the city walls, which has an entrance at the Campo dei Miracoli and looks back over the tower and the piazza; there is no shade on the route, so bring water and sunscreen.
Two More Leaning Towers and the Rest of Pisa
The tower is not Pisa's only tilted campanile. The marshy ground that undermined it did the same elsewhere: the Bell Tower of San Nicola Church, near the banks of the Arno, and the Bell Tower of San Michele of Scalzi Church both lean too. Beyond the piazza, walk south to the river. The Lungarno Mediceo and Lungarno Pacinotti on the north bank and the Lungarno Galilei and Lungarno Gambacorti on the south give the city its character, especially at night when lamplight reflects on the Arno. Along them stand the Romanesque octagonal church of Santo Sepolcro, by Diotisalvi, who also built the Baptistry, and the tiny Gothic Santa Maria della Spina, built in 1230 to house a thorn from Jesus's crown and moved stone by stone up the bank in the 1800s to save it from flooding. The Ussero Café, founded in 1775, occupies the Palazzo Agostini on the Lungarno Pacinotti and hosted the first Italian Congress of Scientists in 1839.
Cross the Ponte di Mezzo between Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza XX Settembre, the two squares at the centre of city life, and wander Borgo Stretto and Corso Italia, the pedestrian shopping streets that run from each. In Piazza XX Settembre you'll find the Logge dei Banchi, built in 1600 to house the textile market. North of the river, Piazza dei Cavalieri was the seat of Pisan political power in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; its Palazzo della Carovana, with a façade by Giorgio Vasari, now belongs to the Scuola Normale Superiore, and the Palazzo dell'Orologio replaced the Torre della Fame, where Count Ugolino della Gherardesca was imprisoned and left to die of hunger, as Dante recounts.
Before You Book
The tower has been through a great deal to still be standing for your visit: closed to the public in 1990, stabilised by remedial work between 1993 and 2001 that reduced the tilt to 3.97 degrees, and reopened on 15 December 2001. Engineers have since declared it stable. Book your climbing slot in advance, allow time for the cathedral, Baptistry and Camposanto around it, and leave an afternoon for the river. Start with the ticket, then build the day around it.