Magpie
3.0(9 reviews)

La Spezia Shore Excursion to Lucca and Leaning Tower of Pisa

From$41.65
8 hours
La Spezia, Italy

Full description

Let’s visit Lucca and Pisa in 1 day! On board our shuttle bus with our expert excort you will easly let you reach and visit this 2 cities. We grant you the return on time at the cruise ship! Once you will arrive in Lucca our escort will lead you trough the most important lendmarks like the Torre Guinigi, the Anfitatro square and the san Frediano Church, at the end you will have some free time. Fall in love with Pisa and the amazing Piazza Dei Miracoli: the most popular attraction in Pisa where you will have free time to visit the Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the Baptistery or realaxing In the green meadow under the shadow of one of this monument.

Included / Excluded

  • English speaking escort
  • WiFi on board
  • Leaning Tower Entrance ( if selected)
  • Air-conditioned vehicle
  • Free map of Lucca and Pisa
  • Walk in Lucca city center (if option selected)
  • Pick up service

Itinerary

1

Pass by: Be sure to be at the meeting point at least 15 minutes before departure time, at the meeting point you will find the staff wearing a GREEN T-Shirt. No refund will be give in case of late coming

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE
2

Once you will arrive in Lucca you will have some free time or a walking tour in the city center with our escort (if selected) where yout will lead through the most important landmarks like the Torre Guinigi, the Anfitatro square and the san Frediano Church.

Duration: 3 hoursAdmission: NOT_APPLICABLE
3

Pass by: Admire the 45 metres high Tower, a typical example of Romanesque-Gothic architecture. The tower, built in stone and brick, is one of the most representative and famous monuments of Lucca; its main feature is the presence of some holm oaks on its top. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Lucca was proud of the over 250 towers and numerous bell towers that enriched the city in medieval times, within a much narrower circle of walls than today. The Guinigi, now masters of the city, wanted to refine their severe residences with a tree-lined tower, common to other palaces, which became a symbol of rebirth, on top of the simulacrum of their lordship. Reaching the top is made possible by 25 flights of stairs - for a total of 241 steps - quite easy in the first part but not in the last one, where you can continue to climb only thanks to small metal ramps. Hanging on the internal walls, it is possible to admire numerous paintings depicting scenes of medieval life.

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE
4

Pass by: Enter this Romanesque church built in in the first half of the 6th century dedicated to the three holy Levites Vincenzo, Stefano and Lorenzo existed in this place. The construction of this first church can be traced back to San Frediano himself, an Irish presbyter who was elected bishop of Lucca between 560 and 588. The excavations carried out under the current basilica confirmed the presence of the ancient building.

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE
5

Pass by: Visit this square, a former second century Roman amphitheater of Lucca. The square was born in the Middle Ages and in this era it was called "parlascio", a distortion of the Latin paralisium ("amphitheatre"), which, due to the influence of the word "talk", was said to indicate the place where citizens' meetings were held. It was progressively filled with buildings, variously used as a salt warehouse, powder magazine and prison.

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE
6

Fall in love with Pisa and the amazing Piazza Dei Miracoli: the most popular attraction in Pisa where you will have free time to visit the Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the Baptistery or relaxing In the green meadow under the shadow of one of this monument. Included in your excursion you have an ice cream ( if selected ) in the city center!

Duration: 2 minAdmission: NOT_APPLICABLE
7

If selected you have the chance to climb this iconical tower, popularly known as the leaning tower, the bell tower of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in the famous Piazza del Duomo of which it is the most famous monument due to its characteristic slope, symbol of Pisa and among the iconic symbols of Italy. It is a free-standing bell tower 57 meters high (58.36 meters considering the foundation plan) built over two centuries, between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. With a mass of 14,453 tons, the curved line predominates, with turns of blind arches and six floors of loggias. The slope is due to a subsidence of the underlying ground which occurred already in the early stages of construction.

Duration: 40 minAdmission: NO
8

Pass by: Look at Monumental Cemetery, where the legend claims that bodies buried in that ground will rot in just 24 hour. Architecturally the Camposanto is composed of a high rectangular wall, with the side facing the Cathedral and the more elongated baptistery. On the outside it is in simple white marble, with 43 blind arches with human heads on the arch connections, and two doors on the southern side[4]. The main access is the one overlooking the square, to the east, and is decorated with a rich Gothic tabernacle above the access portal, a work from the second half of the 14th century, containing statues of the Madonna and Child and four saints by a follower of John Pisano, and Angels by Tino di Camaino

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE
9

Pass by: Admire the largest baptistery in Italy, it is 54 m high, with a diameter of 34, built from 1152 to 1363. The baptistery has a curious truncated cone dome, like that of the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Pisa, also by the same architect, which only covers the internal circle of pillars (the construction technique for a large hemispherical or polygonal dome was almost unknown at the time ). Diotisalvi's project was to architecturally cite both the Dome of the Rock (believed to be built on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon) in the external part, and the Anástasis of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in the internal part, both in Jerusalem. Subsequently the works were continued by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano who modified the Baptistery in Gothic style with the loggia and the hemispherical dome (effectively a dome) which hides the pyramidal one.

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE
10

The Cathedral of Pisa, officially the Primate Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in the center of the Piazza del Duomo, also known as Piazza dei Miracoli, is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa as well as the Primate church. A masterpiece of the Romanesque, in particular of the Pisan Romanesque, it represents the tangible testimony of the prestige and wealth achieved by the maritime republic of Pisa at the moment of its apogee. The building has a Latin cross shape with a large dome at the intersection of the arms. The longitudinal body, divided into five naves, extends over ten bays. This plan continues in the choir with two more bays and a final apse crowning the central nave alone. The transept has 4 bays on each side (or six if we include the two in common with the longitudinal body) and has three naves with apses ending on both sides. In the center four large pillars delimit the rectangular cross ending at the top with a large elliptical dome.

Duration: 20 minAdmission: NO
11

Pass by: Back at the same place where you left

Admission: NOT_APPLICABLE

Meeting point

Start Location

Unknown location

Cancellation policy

Free cancellation up to 1 days before the activity starts

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Accessibility

  • Easy Public Transport

Good to know

  • Departure times are subject to change due to arrival to Cruise ships
  • Please, specify Ship Name and Boarding time
  • The oder of visit may change, please contact our local staff to confirm.
  • Be sure to be at the meeting point at least 15 minutes before departure time, at the meeting point you will find the staff wearing a RED T-Shirt. No refund will be give in case of late coming
  • Pisa tower: entry is not allowed for children under the age of 8 (completed or to be completed in the current year)
  • If your ship makes an itinerary change or schedule change and you arrive in a different port or in a different schedule, please do not assume your tour has been cancelled. your tour will be schedule for the new port or for the new timing. Please call our representative to confirm the new details.
  • Return in time to the ship guaranteed.
  • Meeting point just outside the cruise terminal

Traveler reviews

3.0
9 reviews
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2

The Absolute Worst

The tour operator sucks. We were five minutes late due to ship shuttle and they left without us. No email, no text, no phone call, just gone. We have used Viator so many times and never had an experience like this. We called Viator and they defended the merchant. Poor business decision on the part of both.

Joel_ZApr 10, 2026VIATOR

Lucca and Pisa

Our tour was semi private with only 6 people. The ride was comfortable and the visit to Lucca and Pisa timely. However, it would have been nice to have more historic information. Kiyko did his best to provide as much information as possible and to answer our questions. He admitted that he was not qualified as a guide … The company should have assign a certified guide to our group or cancel the tour. Kiyko walked with us around Lucca and gave us background information in Pisa before we had free time to visit.

Jacinthe_TNov 16, 2025VIATOR

Original tour cancelled to Pisa and Lucca

Two days before our tour, we received a text stating the original Pisa and Lucca tour was cancelled due to not enough people and offered Pisa only tour. Tour to Pisa was good but I wished that I would have booked through Royal Caribbean rather than Biator because RRC would not have cancelled their tour to Pisa and Lucca. Lesson learned, pay the extra cost if on a cruise ship to avoid cancellations.

Jerry_PSep 20, 2025VIATOR

Not good for those staying on land.

This tour caters to cruise passengers. Our tour was late because they accomodated a last minute booking for 18 passengers from an incoming cruise. Our whole tour got rearranged at the last minute which affected my plans in the town I wanted to visit. We were switched out to another group twice during the day and we're expected to hang around for 2 extra hours just waiting for another bus to pick us up. We ended up leaving the tour and taking a train back on our own.

Luisa_DJul 24, 2025VIATOR

Nice day in Lucca and Pisa

Really enjoyed to tour. Tour company is managing many tour options which makes it a bit confusing but everything worked out as planned. We enjoyed Lucca (although decided to walk on our own vs. the pace of the guided walking tour). Pisa was a great stop and enjoyed the opportunity to climb the tower. Communication was good as we joined another tour for trip back to ship.

tinalynnJul 13, 2025TRIPADVISOR

Additional information

Departure times are subject to change due to arrival to Cruise ships Please, specify Ship Name and Boarding time The oder of visit may change, please contact our local staff to confirm. Be sure to be at the meeting point at least 15 minutes before departure time, at the meeting point you will find the staff wearing a RED T-Shirt. No refund will be give in case of late coming Pisa tower: entry is not allowed for children under the age of 8 (completed or to be completed in the current year) If your ship makes an itinerary change or schedule change and you arrive in a different port or in a different schedule, please do not assume your tour has been cancelled. your tour will be schedule for the new port or for the new timing. Please call our representative to confirm the new details. Return in time to the ship guaranteed. Meeting point just outside the cruise terminal
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