Time-slot reservation tickets are essential to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Buy tickets and book admission online in advance.
Seeing the Leaning of Tower of Pisa is free but climbing the famous tower is only possible with a timed admission ticket. Buy online in advance to secure a specific day and time slot. Admission to the cathedral is free (but requires a time-slot ticket too) or enter anytime with a tower ticket or any other ticket for Field of Miracles sights (currently the baptistry, museum or cemetery). Several guided tours of the top Pisa sights are available with Pisa also a popular day-trip destination for bus tours from Florence and Livorno. Visitors rarely spent more than a few hours in Pisa making further towns such as Siena, San Gimignano, Lucca and Florence popular additions for day trip tours.
Ticket Prices for the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Admission to the Field of Miracles (Campo Dei Miracoli) in Pisa and the exterior of all buildings in the area is free and possible at all times.
Tickets are available for the following sights in Pisa:
Cathedral (Duomo) — admission is free but only per time-slot ticket, which is included in any of the paid tickets below, or pick up a free ticket in person only from any ticket office. On very busy days, there may be a delay to enter the church or occasionally, no more free tickets available on the day. Buying a ticket for any of the cheaper sights below will get visitors into the cathedral, which is very much worth visiting.
Climbing the Leaning Tower (Torre) — €18 per time-slot reservation tickets only.
Baptistery (Battistero) / Camposanto Cemetery / Museum of the Sinopias (Museo delle Sinopie) — €5 for any site, €7 for any two sites and €8 for all three sites.
Palazzo dell’ Opera del Duomo — admission depends on the exhibition, if any.
Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo — closed for renovation. It has an eclectic collection including some of the original art from the cathedral, Pisan Renaissance paintings, and a large collection of Etruscan and Egyptian items from antiquity.
Buying Tickets for the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Fields of Miracles
Time-slot reservation tickets for the leaning tower of Pisa may be bought online at least a day in advance from Opapisa or resellers such as Tiqets and Get Your Guide. Opapisa sells tickets at most 20 days in advance while the resellers usually sell up to two months in advance. Resellers often have better cancelation and change conditions but add a surcharge. Many guided tours also include climbing the tower or add it as an option.
It is best to buy tickets online and in advance to climb the leaning tower of Pisa. Admission is only by specific time-slot with only 45 people allowed to enter every 15 minutes. Each group is accompanied by a “guide” who herds the group up the nearly 300 stairs and down and out within half an hour. Lingering is not allowed (there is not much to see anyway).
The minimum age to climb the leaning tower of Pisa is 8 years. Children 8 to 18 must be accompanied by an adult. No discounts are given on ticket prices.
If arriving without advance purchase tickets in Pisa, enquire at the office near the Leaning Tower or at the Museum of the Sinopias, if time slots are still available for the specific day. Early morning or late afternoon slots are the most likely to be available — the busiest time is usually around 10:00 to 15:00.
Climbing the tower of Pisa certainly is a unique experience but it is pricy — all the art in the Uffizi Gallery may be enjoyed for similar money (or much less for children under 18). If failing to secure tickets, it is worth bearing in mind that the tower is most impressive from the outside. It is essentially an engineering disaster — the true architectural and cultural highlights are the cathedral and baptistry.
Tickets for the Baptistery, cemetery and museum may also be bought online in advance from Opapisa or Tiqets. Advance purchases are a good idea during the high season but less problematic than securing a time-slot to climb the tower. Any of these tickets include fast-track admission to the cathedral, which is by far the most impressive interior here, without having to enter within a specific time slot.
Guides Tours and Day Trips to Pisa
A wide variety of guided tours are available to see the sights on the Fields of Miracles of Pisa with many including climbing the leaning tower. Cheaper tours usually do not include tickets for the leaning tower, which is often offered as an optional extra that should be booked at the time of original tour reservation — it is rarely possible to add it later on.
Day-Trip Tours of Pisa from Livorno or Florence
Pisa is a popular day-trip destination from Florence or as shore excursion for cruise boats calling at Livorno. The Field of Miracles is easily seen in an hour or two, making Pisa generally a half-day bus trip or more commonly as part of longer day-trip tours that may include further towns such as Lucca, San Gimignano, Chianti, Siena, and Cinque Terre. Day-trip tours are also available from Rome and often include a visit to Florence.
Many day-trip tours have climbing the leaning tower of Pisa as an optional extra that will add around €25 to the tour price.
Timed entry tickets are increasingly common, and during high season almost essential, to see top sights in Italy such as the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence, the Last Supper in Milan, the Coliseum in Rome, and the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
