Fair enough. It’s not that it’s not accessible (though I’m not sure I’d choose to drive in Pisa), it’s that it’s so small you don’t need one. We walked round basically the whole place in a couple of hours. Driving around that part of Italy is fun, but you really don’t need cars in towns. I wouldn’t drive around Florence either. It has a really good bus service.
Don’t know if it’s still the same, but when we were in Germany our rental car was a Mercedes (we didn’t select a Mercedes we just rented a midsize car and that’s what we got. One of our friends who lived there said they give all of the American tourists them). It was in our rental agreement that if rented a “luxury” car, we were specifically not allowed to drive it and park it in Venice. Something about theft being so high for those cars. Not sure if he was being serious or if he was just pulling my leg. The agreement was all in German so I couldn’t question it.
Probably not, but a piece of paper with an address and a taxi is all you need.
If you do decide to follow what I’m suggesting about picking a car up at Pisa airport, there’s a train from Pisa station to the airport that literally takes two minutes. The airport is something like a mile away from the main station or something insane.
Parking info:
I rented a car to drive around Tuscany, and found that you can’t bring a car into Lucca either, but there are a number of relatively cheap parking lots on the outskirts and then it’s about 10 minutes’ walk into the center. Which is a walk you’ll want to do, through the tiny medieval alleyways until you get to the Roman circus in the middle, as it’s incredibly atmospheric.
In Pisa there’s a parking lot right over the street from the famous piazza, but it’s heavily oversubscribed and expensive, with a very weird ticketing system that my girlfriend had to translate. I would not want to try to park in the side streets nearby - it’s in a pretty rough-looking area of the city, and one which also boasts a huge number of parking restrictions. The train station is about fifteen minutes’ walk across the river from the piazza, however.
It might be a cultural thing, but we Euros walk and take public transport a lot more within cities than Americans, so the idea of arriving into a city via a train station and then going to the hotel on foot/taxi/bus/tram/whatever doesn’t faze us too much. And of course when in Rome (or nearby)…
Despite the generous baggage allowance that transatlantic flights give you, I would also suggest packing less than 40 lbs each, and making sure you’ve got a comfy backpack or a robust wheely case.
There aren’t rental car pickups near small train stations, but there are rental car pickups at some of the large ones (basically, those which have a large parking area attached).
A hint: don’t overplan your driving/wallking around stages. Italy has tons of touristy places they don’t bother advertise for; they advertise for maybe the most-famous 10%, leaving out whole architectural periods. Be open to just parking and taking a walk around when you see something that merits it.
Just got back on Sunday. Heres a very edited summary:
Departed Chicago on American and changed planes in Madrid to Iberia. Our plane was late and the rudest people in Europe told us the gate to our connecting flight was closed and even though the plane was just sitting there we’d have to take the next plane 10 hours later. After 2 dozen people stood there and bitched they re-opened the gate and let us on the plane. But Our luggage didn’t make it! Didn’t get it for 36 hours after we got to our hotel. Grrr!:mad:
Arrived in Venice.
Regular old street bus took us across the bridge to the city for 4 Euros each. Much cheaper than a water bus. We took the water bus to some of the islands later in the week.
After 4 days we took the train to Florence. I rented a car in Florence at Sixt. $149 for 4 days, all taxes, and all the insurances they insist you have. Driving in Florence is fucking insane. Italian drivers are mental! We only spent 1 day in the city.
Got a hotel high up on a hill in Tavamuzze. Used it as a base for 4 days as we explored the Tuscany area.
Second to last day returned the rental car, took the train to Pisa. Took a taxi to our hotel. Last hotel wasn’t too good. Shared bathroom and shower. Blah.
Saw the tower, hung out at a club called “The Wall” and saw a live band until about 11. By then everyone was out on the streets partying. It was pretty fun.
Came home on Sunday.
Like I mentioned before, it’s been many years since we’ve been to Italy, and then it was in Rome and I didn’t drive. Here are some observations:
*Did I mention what assholes Italian drivers are? They make Illinois drivers look good.
*Things were not as expensive as some people told me they would be. Food and most liquor was quite cheap.
*I loved the constant access to booze. Beer in the cooler at an ice cream parlor is far out.
*The Tuscany countryside was too beautiful to describe (should have sent a poet) but the hilly roads were nuts!
Here are some pix.
Thanks for sharing.
All I can do is parrot spending as much time in Lucca as possible. And say ‘hi’ to Carlo for me…sniff 
Pisa sucks.
Also, be extremely careful about driving into any Italian city. We parked in a private parking lot in Florence but ended up getting hit with a fine just for driving into the city. The parking lot is supposed to register your license plate to confirm that you parked somewhere legally but apparently this place didn’t. Also the rental company charged us 30 euros as an administrative fee for looking up our info for the cops. :rolleyes: Anyway, apparently a lot of Italian cities have started instituting these fines but not advertising them as a way to squeeze more money out of tourists.
ETA: I see you already went. 
Sounds like you have a good time!
I was in Pisa back in April, and I’d heard that it was a dump - but it’s not so much that it sucks, it’s just that there’s very little there. Apart from the tower. On a practical level it’s easy to walk from the airport to the train station and then to the tower and back; it’s one of the few small European towns that actually has an airport in it. Pisa’s pleasant otherwise, but no more than any another anonymous Italian town. If they had any sense they’d move the tower complex to the middle of Lucca. And then just demolish Pisa and rename the airport Lucca Airport.
One thing the original poster could have done was take a train to Riomaggiore, which is about an hour and a half and €6.50 away - you change at La Spezia. Riomaggiore is part of the Cinque Terre, a row of five villages up the coast of Italy, built on some rugged cliffs. They were hit badly by storms late last year but they’re still standing. Essentially they’re a more gritty, less partyish version of the Amalfi Coast.
Pisa wasn’t bad. There was an area between our hotel and the tower (about a 10 minute walk) that was a plaza area with lots of shops/cafes. Starting at about 11pm it filled up with thousands of people drinking, partying, eating, playing music. We got to meet and mingle with the locals as well as other tourists. Booze was surprisingly cheap, especially beer/wine. It was a pretty good time.