Pisa Guide: Exploring stunning architect

In April I was lucky enough to travel to Pisa over the Easter weekend. We stayed in Pisa for 2 nights and I was able to pack enough into my 2 full days in Pisa to create a travel guide, to hopefully help you plan for a short trip to Pisa and gain some valuable tips and advice from what I learnt during my stay.

We arrived in Pisa very late in the evening and we took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. The taxi rank is located right outside the airport and is extremely easy to find. Unfortunately we arrived in Pisa to rain and our taxi driver informed us that it was their first downpour for a long time, which is just our luck! Although we of course didn’t let the rain ruin our plans and continued on with our planned itinerary. Our taxi driver offered us suggestions and recommendations too, which was greatly appreciated. After a short taxi ride, we arrived at our hotel and checked in smoothly and quickly, which allowed us to be in our room settled and ready for bed at 11pm.

Our first morning in Pisa was very rainy still, but we decided to brave the rain and continue on with our planned trip to Florence. We had a delicious breakfast at our hotel and then headed to the station to make our way to Florence. The walk from our hotel to the station was about 30 minutes and we were able to take in incredible sights on the way. We weren’t planning to visit the leaning tower of Pisa until the next day when we would be exploring more of Pisa, however on our route to the station, we unexpectedly came across the Square of Miracles which is home to the Leaning tower. The square was absolutely beautiful and the leaning tower leaned much more than I anticipated! After taking some quick pictures, we continued on our way to the station where we continued to come across beautiful sights, including Arno river and lots of authentic looking restaurants and cafes. Walking to the station was making me excited for our following day exploring Pisa.

Florence is a one hour train ride from Pisa so it seemed rude not to visit! Florence has been on my ‘must-visit’ list for a long time so I was really excited to finally be able to explore the stunning city and no amount of rain could dampen my plans. Luckily, the rain eased off quite soon when we arrived in Florence and held out for the majority of the day, so we were able to visit everything that we wanted to. Florence is a beautiful city which I would highly recommend visiting. I have written a whole blog post dedicated to my time in Florence so I won’t go into very much detail here but I will give you some points of interest within the Tuscan city: Piazzale Michelangelo, Fountain of Neptune, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Piazza del Duomo and Ponte Vecchio, to name just a few. Our time in Florence was very enjoyable and we spent the majority of the day exploring Florence and arrived back in Pisa in the evening.

When we arrived back in Pisa, the sun was beginning to set and I knew that I wanted to visit Tuttomondo which is one of Keith Haring’s last executed murals before his death. The mural is located less than a 5 minute walk from Pisa station, so luckily we were able to see the mural in all of its glory before it got dark. I had only seen a few pictures of the mural prior to seeing it for myself and I definitely was not expecting it to be as big as it was! I was pleasantly surprised when I turned a corner expecting to see a slab of concrete with the mural painted on, but was instead welcomed by a huge piece of art work on the side of a building. It is hard to gain an idea of the scale of this art piece until you have seen it with your own eyes. The mural represents humanity and the different stages of society. Some of my favourite pieces within the mural were two figures joining together to create scissors cutting a snake, which represents cutting out evil in our lives. I also enjoyed the figure with a television on their head alongside somebody carrying a dolphin on their back to symbolise our relationship with nature. It is a very thought-provoking mural and I am very pleased that I was able to see it during my short time in Pisa.

Once we had seen the incredible mural and spent a bit of time taking in its’ beauty, we began our journey back to our hotel. The walk was lovely in the evening because it was like seeing all of the main sights of Pisa that we had seen from the morning, in a completely different way. The river looked beautiful as the sun set and by the time that we arrived at the Leaning Tower, the tower was lit up in the most beautiful fashion. I would highly recommend visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa during the day and at night, to witness the full beauty of the tower. We arrived back at our hotel around 7pm and went straight for dinner before retreating back to our room where we both realised how exhausted we were. Our first full day in Pisa was a busy one and I was looking forward to a more relaxed day the next day, where we had agreed to stay within Pisa and see all the top sights.

The next morning we woke up to an increase of rain which was a little disappointing as we had planned to visit a beach that day, but we both agreed that as we were only in Pisa for a short amount of time, we would make the most of our time by still visiting the beach and lucky for us, before we left the hotel, the sun was beginning to make an appearance. We had our final breakfast at the hotel (we had a REALLY early flight the next morning) and booked a taxi to the beach town of Marina di Pisa.

The taxi was more expensive than we were expecting but we try to make a point to visit a beach everywhere that we travel to (within reason), so we knew that the end result would be worth it. Marina di Pisa is a stunning seaside town with lots of beautiful hotels and restaurants along the front. Whilst it was no longer raining, the weather was still quite grey with the sun only showing tself on rare occasions. We found a stunning rock path which gave us a beautiful view of the sea, so we sat on that for a little while, whilst we waited for the sun to appear. The sun eventually came out for short durations at a time, which heated the water up enough for us to have a swim in the sea. The water was quite choppy but it was fairly warm and we ended up having a glorious morning in the sea. After a short time in the sea, we got dressed and made our way to the bus stop to spend our last full day in the centre of Pisa. The bus from Marina di Pisa to Pisa town centre took about 25 minutes and was a nice, scenic journey.

When we arrived back in Pisa, we did some shopping in the main city centre before being encouraged to visit a pizzeria by the amazing smell that was coming from it.

We had the most delicious pizza that either of us have ever had and we are still craving that pizza to this day! During our time in Pisa we were desperate to have some authentic Italian coffee that we had heard so many good things about. Although it was surprisingly hard to find a café that we both agreed on. That was until we took a turn down a desolate street and was hit with the most incredible coffee aroma. I personally am not a massive fan of coffee but even I could appreciate how delicious the coffee smelt. The aroma was coming from a small café on the corner with one spare, free table so we quickly sat down at the table and made our order. I had an iced latte whilst Chris went for a standard latte and both of our drinks were absolutely delicious. In fact they were so good that we followed them up with a shot of espresso each, which I surprisingly really enjoyed. Although we have both agreed that we will never be able to have another coffee without remembering how delicious the coffee is in Pisa! It is also important to note that our iced latte, latte and 2 espresso shots came to less than €5, which we were very impressed with.

Once we had finished our coffees, we made our way to the river where we were able to appreciate the sun which was now fully shining☀ we walked around the river and ended up at a gelato shop. With the sun not looking like it was planning on disappearing anytime soon, we decided to buy some ice creams. We were already extremely pleased with the food and drink that we had experienced on this day so were very content with a standard ice cream. However, we were not prepared for how delicious the gelato was! We went for three flavours each, with mine being lemon, mango and tutti frutti, whilst Chris went for pistachio, coffee and banana. This was genuinely the best ice cream that we have ever had and Chris’ pistachios were grown in Sicily which made them extra delicious 😋

We sat and ate our ice creams in the sun for a little while, before making our way to the square of miracles. It ended up being such a beautiful day weather wise, that we ordered some drinks to-go and then sat on the grass by the Leaning Tower of Pisa, taking in all the stunning sights. Close to the tower is a market full of gifts and we managed to get ourself some memorabilia to remember what a fantastic day we had exploring Pisa. It was reaching the evening so we decided to make our way back to the hotel, stopping at a local supermarket to buy ourselves a feast to have back at the hotel, whilst we relaxed for our last evening and packed. We had to leave the hotel at 4am the next morning for an early flight so we decided that this would be the best way to spend our evening, whilst looking through pictures and appreciating what a wonderful time in Pisa we had.

Leaving Pisa the next morning was very sad and I am already desperate to get back! The locals were so friendly and the food was phenomenal. We even ended up buying truffle spaghetti and Italian sausage at the airport for us to enjoy when we got home, so that we could hold on to a little piece of Italy whilst we were back in the UK🇮🇹 Needless to say that we will definitely be returning soon.

Below is my final, condensed list of things to do whilst in Pisa:

1. Day Trip To Florence