Piazza dei Cavalieri in the late afternoon

Two hundred metres from the tower, and almost nobody walks here. Piazza dei Cavalieri was the seat of Pisa's government before the Medici, and Vasari redesigned it in the sixteenth century: the Palazzo della Carovana that dominates it is covered head to foot in sgraffito decoration, with a double staircase and a row of busts above the doorway.

That facade is the reason to come. It faces roughly south-west, so from mid-afternoon the low sun rakes across the incised plasterwork and the whole wall becomes texture — a background that carries a full-length portrait on its own. The double stair gives natural levels for a family or a group, and the well-head and the statue of Cosimo I break up the open paving.

The square is now a university campus, home to the Scuola Normale, so the people in it are students rather than tour groups: it stays workable at hours when the Miracoli is impossible. Term-time late afternoons are livelier than August, when Pisa empties. Nothing is ticketed and nothing closes — this is the reliable fallback when the rest of the city is full.