It will once again be possible to visit the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, including the Leaning Tower, starting May 30th. The Leaning Tower, the cathedral, baptistery, Camposanto and Museum of the Opera del Duomo will reopen their doors after almost 3 months of being closed due to the coronavirus health crisis. The sights will reopen with limited hours, every day from 10am to 5pm.
The number of visitors will be set, and the guidelines set by the government for safety protocols will be followed. The Synopie museum will remain closed for a few more weeks while some maintenance is completed.
Following the guidelines set on May 17 by governmental decree for the reopening of museums, the Opera della Primaziale Pisana, the body that manages the monuments and museums, has been at work to ensure that visitors can once enjoy the beauty and wonder of the various monuments in safety.
With the reopening, the OPP body wishes to launch a message of home to the city of Pisa and to the entire country. The presence of visitors is not in any way taken for granted, considering that the flow of visitors will have to be rebuilt from the ground up. The hope is that in the immediate reopening the Piazza will be rediscovered by locals and regional residents, enjoying it better with a slower itinerary. Hopefully, this will also be the case for visitors from outside of Italy as they make their way back to Italy.
The Opera della Primaziale Pisana will also be reopening all of its current works of restoration which were also blocked since March 8th, when the country went into lockdown. Thus the restoration of the outer walls of the cathedral and Camposanto will restart, as well as general maintenance of all of the monuments in the square.
How entrance will be managed
Visitors to the monuments and museums will follow the guidelines set by the Technical Committee, which request:
- that masks be used at all times by visitors over 6 years of age
- that all visitors clean their hands with the sanitizer gel at the entrance into each monument/museum
- respect social distancing parameters of at least 1 meter from other people
- limit the number of visitors present in each monument at any time
For the Leaning Tower (bell tower), only 15 people will be allowed at each timed entrance. Visitors will be requested to wait following the marked spaces both within and outside of the tower. You can buy your tickets ahead of time online here (affiliate link).
For the Cathedral, the number is set at 150 visitors, while during Mass visitors are not allowed. If interested in mass, the time schedule is available on www.opapisa.it.
The Baptistery will allow up to 100 visitors. During baptisms, again, the entrance of visitors will not be allowed.
Within the Museum of the Opera del Duomo, the limit of visitors is also 100 people. Seating areas will also be marked to show the distance between people allowed. At the moment, the audio guides will not be available but the OPP is considering the creation of an app you can download and use on your own smartphone or other device. The bookshop will be open.
The Camposanto will permit up to 250 people to visit at any time.
Signs across the piazza and at the entrance of all the museums/monuments will clearly indicate the safety measures that need to be followed.
The ticket shop
Only the central ticket shop will be open and only 2 windows will be open to allow enough distance between the lines. Entrance to 4 people will be allowed into the ticket shop at any time – 2 at the windows, one waiting inside and one waiting right by the door – with an entrance and exit and a special route to follow that will allow to manage the flow of people inside. Personnel will ensure the guidelines are being followed. You can buy tickets online here (affiliate link).
Meanwhile, in Florence, the Duomo and its monuments reopened on May 22 and in Siena the cathedral is slated to reopen June 13.
About Lourdes Flores
An American living in Florence for over 10 years, Lourdes continues to explore and discover new places in Tuscany with the eyes of a tourist but with the experience of living in Italy. She shares her experiences on this blog and website, particularly offering lots of travel planning help on the Forum!
