How to Get from Venice to Pisa (& vice versa)
· Updated · BootsnAll
On a map of Italy, Venice and Pisa don't look that far apart, and you might wonder whether one would work as a day trip from the other. It won't. The two cities sit on opposite coasts with the Apennines in between, there's no direct high-speed train, and every sensible route runs through Florence.
That's actually the key to this trip. Florence is on the way, the train change there is easy, and a lot of people find it makes more sense to stay in Florence and see Pisa as a half-day trip than to base themselves in Pisa at all. Everything below works in either direction.
The short answer
Take a high-speed train from Venice to Florence, then a regional train from Florence to Pisa. Allow about three and a half hours door to door, more if the connection is tight. Book the high-speed leg early; the regional leg is cheap and fixed.
| Option | Time | Cost in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Train via Florence | about 3.5 hours | from about 19 euros for the fast leg, plus the regional fare |
| Direct coach | from 5.5 hours | from about 20 euros |
| Car | just under 4 hours, 330+ km | fuel, tolls and parking |
| Flight | no direct flights | not worth it |
Taking the Train from Venice to Pisa
The trip has two legs.
Venice to Florence, by high-speed train. Trenitalia's Frecciarossa and the private operator Italo both run direct trains from Venezia Santa Lucia (the station on the Grand Canal) to Firenze Santa Maria Novella. The fastest take about 2 hours. Fares are priced like airfares: in 2026 Italo's advance fares started at about 18.90 euros, and a walk-up ticket costs a lot more. Tickets are for a named train with a reserved seat, so there's nothing to validate. Show the booking on your phone.
Florence to Pisa, by regional train. Regional trains run from Santa Maria Novella to Pisa Centrale throughout the day and take about an hour. The fare is fixed, you don't need a reservation, and you can take any train on the day. If you buy a paper ticket from a machine or window, validate it in the machine on the platform before you board. A digital ticket bought on trenitalia.com or the app is for the train you chose and validates itself.
You can buy both legs as one Trenitalia ticket on trenitalia.com, which protects you if the first train runs late. If you ride Italo to Florence, you'll buy the regional leg separately, so leave yourself a cushion of 20 minutes or more at Santa Maria Novella.
In Pisa, the Leaning Tower is about a 25-minute walk from Pisa Centrale, or a few minutes by regional train to Pisa San Rossore, the small station closest to the Field of Miracles. If you're flying out of Pisa, the PisaMover shuttle runs from Pisa Centrale to the airport in under 3 minutes.
>> More on getting from Venice to Florence and getting from Florence to Pisa
Taking the Bus from Venice to Pisa
FlixBus runs a direct coach from Venice to Pisa. In 2026 it listed four a day, with the fastest taking about 5.5 hours and fares from about 20 euros. Stops in Venice include Piazzale Roma and Mestre station, and in Pisa the train station and the PisaMover stop.
That's slower than the train and not much cheaper than an early train fare, so the bus only wins if the trains are sold out or unusually expensive on your date. A cheaper combination is a coach from Venice to Florence (FlixBus and Itabus both run it) and then the regional train to Pisa. There's more on bus travel in Italy here.
Flying from Venice to Pisa
Both cities have international airports, but there are no direct flights between them. You'd connect somewhere else, and by the time you add the connection, the trips out to both airports and security, the train wins on time and on price by a wide margin. Skip it.
Driving from Venice to Pisa
Venice isn't built for cars, so if you want to drive, pick up your rental car when you leave Venice, not before. Rental desks at Piazzale Roma or Venice Marco Polo airport on the mainland are the easy options. Coming the other way, drop the car before you reach Venice so you don't pay to park it in the garages at Piazzale Roma or on Tronchetto island (the People Mover shuttle links Tronchetto with Piazzale Roma).
The drive is a little over 330 km and takes just under four hours without traffic, on toll motorways past Padua and Bologna and over the Apennines to Florence, then west to Pisa. ViaMichelin will map it and estimate the tolls. Pisa's historic center has a camera-enforced ZTL like most Italian cities, so park outside it; the fine for driving in without a permit is 83 to 332 euros in 2026. More in our guide to driving in Italy.
A car earns its keep if you're touring Tuscany after Pisa: Lucca is about half an hour away, and the hill towns of central Tuscany are an easy day's drive.
And now that you're in Pisa...
Pisa rewards more than the half hour most people give the tower. Some resources for planning your time there:
- Guide to Pisa
- Visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Things to Do in Pisa
- Hotels in Pisa and hostels in Pisa
photos by S D K, Leandro returns, dizarillo, marco.ziero