Home>tourism

Tourism

Overview

Pisa is situated on the banks of the river Arno, on latitude 43^o 43’ North and longitude 10^o 23’ East in North-West Tuscany.

Just 80 km from Florence and 10 km from the sea, Pisa is a popular touristic centre. This town is closely associated with the well-known Leaning Tower.

The climate, mild and temperate, because of the vicinity to the sea and the protection offered by the mountains behind Pisa, has given it a primary place in national and international tourism.

As the fulcrum of an area astride the provinces of Lucca and Livorno, its territory particularly suitable for farm-holidays, trekking, cycling, horse-riding, bird watching, golf, open-air and water sports, that can be practised on a fantastic coast with sand-beaches, perfectly equipped with bathing establishments, hotels and restaurants. In the Regional Nature Park of Migliarino - San Rossore - Massaciuccoli extending for 23,000 hectares along the coast from Viareggio to Livorno, with tree groves and Mediterranean shrubs, encounters with deer, boars and the over two-hundred verities of migratory birds are frequent. Pisa preserves, with the complex of Piazza dei Miracoli – cultural patrimony of all humanity – numerous masterpieces of civil and military architecture and of medieval history.

To this treasures can be added the Certosa of Pisa, at Calci (10 km from Pisa) and the Basilica of San Piero a Grado (5 Km from Pisa), obligatory stop for lovers of Romanesque art.

Pisa’s cultural and academic traditions boasts, besides the most ancient botanical garden in all of Europe, a prestigious athenaeum flanked by the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari Sant’Anna and the Scuola Normale Superiore, unique in Italy and instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1813.

A city of art and history, Pisa commemorates its traditions during the month of June with numerous folklore and religious events, among which we draw attention to the Luminara, in occasion of the feast of the patron Saint (16 June), a suggestive decoration of the banks of the Arno River with wax candles, and the Palio di San Ranieri, a regatta with special boats through the historic parts of town.

On the last Sunday in June, at the end of procession composed of over seven hundred actors in historic costumes, the two opposite banks of the Arno, organised in two opposing factions of six teams each, face each other, pushing a heavy cart, and thus inaugurate the Game of the Bridge, a re-evocation of an ancient tournament game.