Most visitors see Pisa as a train ride to one tower and back. This guide follows the route in between, from the station side of town to the Piazza dei Miracoli: Keith Haring's Tuttomondo mural, the tiny church of Santa Maria della Spina and Palazzo Blu on the Arno, Piazza Garibaldi at the main bridge, the Palazzo della Carovana on Piazza dei Cavalieri, and finally the Leaning Tower. All six are stops on our scavenger hunt, in this order.
Tuttomondo by Keith Haring
The American artist Keith Haring painted this mural in June 1989 on the south wall of the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, a few streets from Pisa Centrale station. It came about almost by chance: a Pisan student, Piergiorgio Castellani, met Haring in New York and invited him to Pisa, and his family arranged the project with the city. Haring finished the wall in about a week. Covering some 180 square metres, with 30 figures linked together, it is about peace and harmony between people and with nature, and it is one of the last public murals he made before he died in February 1990. The city restored it in 2012.
- In the upper right, a pair of green scissors made of two joined figures cutting a red snake in two.
- The soft, bright colours, which pick up the tones of the old house fronts along the Arno.
Santa Maria della Spina
This small church on the south bank of the Arno is one of the finest pieces of Gothic in Pisa, almost covered in spires, tabernacles and statues. It was built around 1230, enlarged after 1325, and got its name in 1333, when it received a relic said to be a thorn from Christ's crown of thorns. The relic is now kept in the church of Santa Chiara. By the 19th century the river was seeping in, so in 1871 the whole church was taken apart and rebuilt on a higher level; the English writer John Ruskin was among those who criticised the work.
The statues on the outside, many from the workshops of the Pisano family and their followers; some originals are now in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo.
- The marble stripes and the pointed gables on the side facing the river, best seen from the embankment.
- Palazzo Blu
A short walk upstream on Lungarno Gambacorti, you cannot miss the palace painted pale blue. The colour was found during a restoration and is said to go back to Russian owners in the 18th century. The building was a noble residence, home to the Giuli family until 2001, and was then restored by the Fondazione Pisa as an art and culture centre, now run by the Fondazione Palazzo Blu. It hosts large temporary exhibitions and has permanent rooms with the foundation's collection of Pisan painting.
The first-floor rooms, kept as an aristocratic home with furniture and paintings.
- The basements, opened in 2015, with finds from Roman times to the 19th century excavated under the palace.
- Piazza Garibaldi
Cross the Ponte di Mezzo and you are in Piazza Garibaldi, the square at the north end of the city's central bridge. Until the late 19th century it was simply called the piazza di Ponte di Mezzo. In the middle stands a bronze statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi by Ettore Ferrari, from 1892. The reliefs on the base show scenes from his life, including the wound he received at Aspromonte in 1862, which was treated in Pisa. On the far side of the square, under the arcades, the street of Borgo Stretto begins.
The Casino dei Nobili opposite the bridge, the backdrop to the square since the mid-1700s.
- The view back across the river to Palazzo Blu and the Lungarno.
- Palazzo della Carovana
On Piazza dei Cavalieri, the long palace covered in black and white sgraffito was rebuilt by Giorgio Vasari between 1562 and 1564 from the old Palace of the Elders, as the headquarters of the Order of Saint Stephen. Its name comes from the carovana, the three years of training that new knights went through here. The sgraffito designs, allegorical figures and signs of the zodiac, follow Vasari's plan, though what you see today was repainted in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Since 1843 the palace has been the main seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore, a university college founded in 1810, under Napoleon. Its students have included the poet Giosuè Carducci and the physicist Enrico Fermi. The statue of Cosimo I in front of the palace is described in our guide to Pisa's Cathedral and Piazza dei Cavalieri.
The busts of the grand dukes of Tuscany in the upper row, the grand masters of the order.
- The coat of arms of the Medici with the knights' cross, flanked by figures of Religion and Justice.
- The double staircase at the entrance, remade in 1821.
The Leaning Tower
The bell tower of the cathedral was begun in August 1173. When the builders reached the second floor in 1178 it was already starting to lean, because its shallow foundation stands on soft soil. Work then stopped for almost a century, as Pisa was at war with Genoa, Lucca and Florence, and the long pause let the ground settle, which probably saved the tower. The seventh floor was finished in 1319 and the bell chamber by Tommaso di Andrea Pisano in 1372. It holds seven bells, one for each note of the major scale. Who designed it is still debated.
By 1990 the tilt had reached about 5.5 degrees, and the tower closed to visitors. Engineers removed soil from under the north side, straightened it by around 45 centimetres, and it reopened in December 2001 with a lean of just under 4 degrees. The story that Galileo dropped two balls from the top to test falling bodies comes from a biography by his pupil and is not confirmed.
- The curve in the tower: the upper floors were built slightly straighter to make up for the lean.
- The worn marble steps, which climb in a spiral between the inner and outer walls.
- The bells in the top chamber and the view over the Piazza dei Miracoli and the city's roofs.
How to see them in one walk
Start at Tuttomondo near the station and walk north along Corso Italia to the Arno. Turn left along Lungarno Gambacorti to Santa Maria della Spina, then walk back upstream to Palazzo Blu. Cross the Ponte di Mezzo to Piazza Garibaldi, follow Borgo Stretto and turn left to Piazza dei Cavalieri for the Palazzo della Carovana. From there, the old streets lead north-west to the Piazza dei Miracoli and the Leaning Tower. Climbing the tower needs a timed ticket, so book it ahead, especially in summer.
See Pisa with World City Trail
Our Pisa scavenger hunt turns the city into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, and all six places in this guide are among them: Tuttomondo, Santa Maria della Spina, Palazzo Blu, Piazza Garibaldi, the Palazzo della Carovana and the Leaning Tower, along with the statue of Galileo Galilei, Piazza dei Cavalieri, the Cathedral and the Baptistery. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Pisa, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Pisa scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Pisa →
Play the outdoor escape game in Pisa →
Facts checked in October 2026.