Pisa is under an hour from Florence by regional train, several times an hour, with no need to book. That short journey is the argument for going: you can leave after breakfast, climb the tower, see three of the finest Romanesque buildings in Italy and be back in Florence for dinner.
It also means you can do the famous square in half a day and spend the other half in the parts of Pisa the coach groups never reach.
Is it worth a day trip?
Yes, on the condition that you treat it as a day in a city rather than an hour at a tower. The cathedral and baptistery are better buildings than the tower is, and beyond the piazza Pisa is a working university town with arcaded streets and a fine river frontage that almost nobody walks to.
Skip it if you have only two or three days in Tuscany, when Siena or the countryside will give you more. Skip the tower itself if you have young children, since nobody who has not turned eight is allowed up, or if 251 steps of a leaning spiral staircase sound unpleasant.
There is little case for staying overnight unless you are flying from Pisa's airport. The journey is short enough that the travel is not the issue, which is why this one works. On that arithmetic, see how far is too far for a day trip.
Getting there
Trenitalia regional trains run from Firenze Santa Maria Novella to Pisa Centrale in roughly fifty to seventy minutes, the Regionale Veloce services being the faster. Departures are frequent, fares are fixed, and no reservation is needed: buy at the station, from the machines or in the Trenitalia app on the morning you travel.
From Pisa Centrale it is about twenty-five minutes on foot to the Piazza dei Miracoli, straight up through the city and across the Arno, which is a useful introduction to the place. The LAM Rossa bus runs the same route if you would rather not walk it twice. Driving is not worth it, as the historic centre is restricted.
The day, hour by hour
09:30, Piazza dei Miracoli. Arrive before midday and walk the lawn first without going into anything. The four white marble buildings on green grass, with the city walls behind, make more sense as a group than as a list. This is also when you collect tickets and leave bags.
10:00, the Leaning Tower. Entry is by timed slot and the slot is strict: arrive late and you lose it. Bags go to the cloakroom first, and the climb is 251 steps up a spiral staircase that tilts under you in a genuinely disorientating way. Half an hour, and the view over the piazza from the bell chamber is the reward.
11:00, the cathedral. The Duomo is the reason the rest of the square exists, and the best thing in Pisa: striped marble, a gilded coffered ceiling, a mosaic of Christ in the apse finished by Cimabue, and Giovanni Pisano's carved pulpit. Entry is free but controlled by timed passes issued on the spot, or included with any other monument ticket, so pick yours up on arrival rather than at the door.
11:45, the baptistery. The largest in Italy, round and strangely plain inside after the cathedral. Its reason for being here is acoustic: the dome holds a note for many seconds, and staff demonstrate this at intervals. Wait for one, as it changes the building completely.
12:30, Camposanto Monumentale. The walled cemetery along the north side of the piazza, built around earth said to have been brought from Calvary. Its long Gothic cloister holds Roman sarcophagi and frescoes including the Triumph of Death, badly damaged by fire in 1944 and restored since. It is the quietest corner of the square.
14:00, Piazza dei Cavalieri. After lunch, walk south into the city proper. The square was laid out by Vasari for the Knights of St Stephen, and the Palazzo della Carovana with its scratched grey and white façade now belongs to the Scuola Normale Superiore. Students, not tour groups.
15:00, Borgo Stretto. The arcaded main street of old Pisa, cafés under the vaults and shops in the medieval buildings behind, Galileo born a few steps away. A good hour to slow down and take a coffee standing at the bar.
16:00, Ponte di Mezzo. Finish on the bridge across the Arno, looking along the Lungarni to the palaces on either bank. In June the city fills it for the Gioco del Ponte, a costumed tug of war between the two halves of Pisa. From here it is a short walk back to Pisa Centrale.
What to book ahead
Book the tower slot in advance through the Opera della Primaziale Pisana, which runs the monuments in the square: slots are limited and the popular ones go first. Everything else can be bought on the day, and the trains never need reserving.
Open this day trip in Tralendr
We have saved this day as a ready-made plan, each stop in order and pinned on a map, so you can see how the piazza, the centre and the river relate to the station. It opens without an account, and every stop and time can be changed.
Open the Pisa day trip plan and send the link to whoever you are travelling with. If you would rather assemble your own, our day trip method explains how to build a day around a single anchor sight.
Staying in Florence a while? The Siena and San Gimignano day trip is the other obvious day out, and a very different one: hill towns and a bus rather than a train and a piazza. The rest are in our day trip collection.