Pisa is among the most important tourist destinations in Tuscany and Italy, thanks to the beauty of its many medieval monuments that recall the ancient past as a powerful maritime republic. UNESCO in 1987 entered the Piazza del Duomo di Pisa (Piazza dei Miracoli) on the list of World Heritage site. 

The city lies in the north western part of Tuscany a few kilometers from the sea and is easy reachable from Florence with the Highway Firenze-Mare and the road of great communication Florence-Pisa-Livorno. From Genoa it's caught up through the Highway A 12, while from Rome it convene to use the Via Aurelia, in great part a four lanes road.

The city was probably of Liguria-Etruscan origin, it became allied of Rome at the beginning of the second Punic war, then it was a roman colony with the name of Julia Obsequens and was, under Rome, an important naval base thanks to the Portus Pisanus. During the Middle Ages it maintained its importance as naval base, in 11th century it was erected a free city, and thanks to its fleet, it freed the Sardinia from Saracens pirates and began to control the government of the island, between 1015 and 1016 it helped the Normanns in the conquest of Sicily and then participated to the first Crusade, founding numerous colonies in the East (Antiochia, Acres, Giaffa, Tripoli of Syria, Tiro, Gioppe, Laodicea and Accone beyond some possessions in Gerusalemme and Cesarean) and gaining in it huge economic benefits. In 1052 it conquered Corsica island. In 1092 it was erected in archbishopric with jurisdiction on Corsica and then, at the beginning of the 12th century also on Sardinia. In 12th century Pisa defeat Amalfi, and supported the Empire, it defeated the Arabs in the Baleari (1115) and in 1162 it obtained from Federico Barbarossa the dominion on the coast between Portovenere and Civitavecchia, some feuds in Southern Italy (Sicily, Calabria and Campania) and three years after (1165) it had the dominion of all the Sardinia. This increase of the pisan power provoked reactions in the cities that aimed to obtain the same power to expenses of Pisa, so Pisa had wars with Lucca, Florence and Genoa.

On 6 August 1284 in the course of the new war with Genoa, Pisa endured a disastrous defeat in the battle of the Meloria. Great part of its fleet was lost and Pisa was not able to recover. In 1406 the florentines, after a long siege, occupied the city. In 1494 Pisa rebelled to the florentine dominion, but in 1509 florentine troops entered triumphant in Pisa, from that moment it remained part the Grand Duchy of Tuscany until the unity of Italy.

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The view of Piazza dei Miracoli, which has entered the Porta Santa Maria, Pisa