Inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa: What You See on the Climb

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is famous as an exterior — the photograph everyone takes from the lawn. But what visitors consistently say surprises them most is the experience inside: the disorienting sensation of climbing marble stairs that slope against you, the hollow core dropping away beneath you, and the physical reality of the lean becoming unmistakable with every floor you gain. This guide takes you through the full experience, floor by floor.

Before You Enter: Practical Essentials

All bags, backpacks, and metal objects must be deposited at the free cloakroom at 21 Piazza del Duomo (approximately 80 metres from the Tower entrance) before you enter the queue. There are no exceptions. Keep your camera or phone in a pocket. Allow 10–15 minutes for this before your time slot.

The staircase is made of polished white Carrara marble that has been worn smooth by centuries of visitors. Combined with the lean, the surface can be slippery — particularly on the descent. Flat, non-slip shoes are strongly recommended. Sandals and flip-flops are genuinely poor choices.

This is not a metaphor or an exaggeration for tourists. The physical sensation of walking on a sloping surface that tilts against your instincts is genuinely unusual. Most visitors find it interesting rather than unpleasant, but visitors prone to vertigo or motion sickness should be aware.

This rule is strictly enforced. All visitors must be 8 or older.

The Entry

You enter the Tower at ground level on the south (leaning) side. The entrance is through a small doorway into the ground floor gallery — a cylindrical space ringed by the characteristic blind arcading of Pisan Romanesque architecture.

Inside, the Tower is hollow. Looking up from the ground floor, you see the internal void rising through the full height of the structure to the belfry above — the stone staircase spiralling up around the inner wall, with glimpses of floors above through the openings. The scale of the interior is surprising: the walls are 2.44 metres thick, and the outer diameter of the tower is approximately 15 metres, but the open central shaft is narrower than most visitors expect.

The Sala del Pesce (Room of the Fish) on the ground floor takes its name from a bas-relief of a fish carved into the stone. This is the starting point for the climb.

The Staircase: 294 Steps

The staircase consists of three connected flights:

First flight — from the base to the sixth floor (the main ascent). This is a continuous spiral cut into the tower wall, with landings at each floor opening onto the external galleries. The steps are approximately 20–25 centimetres wide at the inner edge — narrow for modern feet — and the rise of each step varies due to the curvature and lean of the structure.

Second flight — from the sixth to the seventh floor. This section is narrower and steeper, with a distinct change in feel as you transition from the main staircase to the upper levels.

Third flight — from the seventh floor to the belfry at the top. A final short spiral leads to the open gallery.

The total step count is stated variously as 251, 273, 294, or 296 in different sources — the variation arises from how the steps within the belfry chamber and on the external gallery are counted. The figure most commonly used by the operator is 294.

The Physical Sensation of the Lean

This is what no photograph or description adequately prepares you for. As you ascend the spiral, you move in and out of the direction of the Tower’s lean. On one side of the staircase (the side inclined toward the lean), the steps slope away from you — you feel as though you might slide or tip forward. On the opposite side, the steps slope toward you — you feel as though you are leaning into the wall.

This alternation happens with every circuit of the staircase. On the lower floors it is noticeable. By the fourth and fifth floors it is pronounced. Near the top, some visitors describe the sensation as mildly vertiginous — a feeling that the architecture is defying their instincts about how stairs should behave.

The outer wall of the staircase has small door-sized openings at each landing, closed with metal grates for safety. These let in natural light and also provide glimpses of Piazza dei Miracoli at increasing elevations — a series of progressively more dramatic framed views of the Cathedral and Baptistery as you ascend.

The External Galleries

The Tower has an external arcade gallery on each floor, accessed from the staircase landing. These open-air arcaded walkways ring the outside of the Tower at each level, offering views from the exterior at progressively greater heights. On most floors, visitors can step briefly onto the gallery to look out and down.

The galleries also make the Tower’s lean viscerally apparent from outside: as you look down from one side, you can see the ground far closer on the leaning side than on the opposite. This asymmetry, which is invisible from the ground, becomes startlingly obvious from the galleries.

The structural detail of the galleries — slender marble columns supporting the arcade, carved capitals, fine decorative marble work — is excellent close up. Most visitors on the ascent have neither the time nor the inclination to study it carefully, but the craftsmanship rewards attention.

The Hollow Core

At various points on the ascent, you can look inward over the central void. The Tower is essentially a hollow cylinder with the staircase running up the inside of the outer wall. The central opening runs the full height of the building from the ground-floor sala to the top.

A glass panel near the belfry level allows visitors to look down through this opening to the ground floor — a perspective that conveys the full height of the interior and the scale of the hollow core. This downward view is one of the more unusual visual experiences in the building.

The Bells: Seven Voices of Pisa

The belfry on the eighth floor houses the Tower’s seven bells, one for each note of the musical major scale:

The bells are visible at close range from the open belfry gallery and can be examined in detail. Notice how the bells hang off-centre in their frames — a direct consequence of the Tower’s lean. A perfectly hung bell would be centred in its arch; the lean of the Tower causes them to sit asymmetrically.

The bells were silenced during the 20th century restoration work over concerns that their vibrations could worsen the lean. An electronic system now controls their ringing before Cathedral masses and at noon.

The Top: 360 Degrees over Pisa

The open gallery at belfry level is the destination of every visit. The view is genuinely spectacular. On a clear day it extends:

• Over Piazza dei Miracoli — the Cathedral’s ornate striped marble roof is immediately below and to the west, a perspective almost no visitor ever sees from the ground. The Baptistery dome and the Camposanto’s long Gothic roofline are clearly visible.
• Over Pisa’s rooftops — the historic city centre, the Arno River winding through the city, the University’s medieval buildings.
• To the coast — on clear days, the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian coasts are visible to the west.
• To the Tuscan hills — the rolling countryside extending east toward Florence.

This is also where the lean is most dramatically apparent. Standing on the high (north) side of the gallery and looking down is manageable. Standing on the low (south) side — the leaning side — and looking down requires nerves. The railing is present but the drop to the ground below is real, and the downward view on the lean side tilts disconcertingly outward. Most visitors stay comfortably back from the low-side edge.

Photography is permitted throughout, including at the top. Keep your camera or phone securely in hand — the combination of wind, the lean, and the open gallery makes dropping equipment a real risk.

The Descent

The descent uses the same staircase. Many visitors find the descent more physically challenging than the ascent — the worn, sloping marble is easier to slip on going downward, and the lean-induced disorientation of the staircase is, if anything, more pronounced when descending. Take your time, hold the inner railing, and do not rush.