Italy Tour: Pisa in a Day

Can you visit Pisa on an Italy Tour in a single day? Yes, a day trip will do it quite easily. Cruise ships regularly dock at the nearby Port of Livorno.

Pisa is a Tuscan city passed through by the Arno River, which also passes through Florence further south. Historically it was a maritime republic before the days of the unification of Italy in the late 1800s. The city boasts twenty churches, over half a dozen museums, and several palaces.

The University of Pisa (universitas = community, the universe, or practically: “students who gathered around masters”) was part of the early Renaissance in the mid-12th-century, making it one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe. The 1st-century B.C. author Virgil mentions Pisa in his Aeneid. Pisa means “mouth” (of the Arno) and comes from the Etruscan language (where we get the word Tuscany.)

The most visited location is the “Leaning Tower of Pisa.” Everyone goes up the campanile, the famously leaning bell tower there. Few go into the Pisa Cathedral next to it.

Campanilismo is the “spirit of the town,” typified by the bell tower next to the church in every town I’ve been to in Tuscany. It is a…