ZTL Pisa

The park-and-ride nobody mentions

The car park on Via Pietrasantina, a little north of the centre, is a large lot laid out precisely for people visiting the Tower. It costs very little for a full day, and a shuttle bus runs from it into the centre every few minutes, dropping you within a short walk of Piazza dei Miracoli. The whole transfer takes about ten minutes.

It sits outside the ZTL, the approach from the north does not pass a gate, and it removes the entire problem for roughly the price of a coffee. For a day trip to see the Tower it is comfortably the best option in the city — and far less used than it should be, because visitors head instinctively for the nearest street to the monument and find a camera there instead.

The zone covers more than you would guess

The restricted area is not confined to the block around the Tower. It takes in the historic centre on both sides of the river, including the streets around Piazza dei Cavalieri and Corso Italia, and the boundary is irregular where it follows the medieval street plan. Pisa is small and dense, so the gap between outside the zone and inside it can be a single turn — and the approaches from both the motorway and the airport lead towards it.

The riverside on summer nights

A separate night-time restriction applies along the lungarni, the streets running along both banks of the Arno. It used to run only in the summer months; since the start of 2025 it is permanent and year-round, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from 22:00 until 05:00. Much of the advice still circulating online — and an earlier version of this page — describes the old seasonal version, which means it understates the zone by eight months of the year and by two hours a night.

It exists because the riverside is where Pisa’s student nightlife happens, and it catches drivers who have read the daytime rules, concluded that late evening is clear, and driven along the river to reach a hotel on the far bank. Sunday night is included, which surprises people. If you are moving around Pisa after ten at a weekend, at any time of year, treat the lungarni as restricted.

Arriving from the airport

Pisa’s airport is unusually close to the city, a couple of kilometres from the centre, which tempts people into driving straight in from the rental desk. The road in leads towards the restricted area and the boundary arrives sooner than expected. If you are collecting a car at the airport and staying in the centre, settle the parking arrangement with your accommodation before you drive off the forecourt, and have the plate registered if the property sits inside the zone.