The San Rossore Estate, from Torre del Lago

Getting there

From Torre del Lago the Estate is to the south, beyond the Serchio: with the motorhome you enter by the car gate and park in the green zone, by bicycle you come along the coast and enter by the Marmo gate, to the north. Inside the Estate the speed limit is 30 km/h for all vehicles.

• The four entrances, according to the regulations approved by the Park on 27 February 2026: Ponte alle Trombe, on viale delle Cascine, the one for cars coming from Pisa, a stone's throw from Cascine Vecchie; the Punta gate, further south; the Marmo gate, to the north, near the Sterpaia, only on foot, by bicycle or on horseback; the gate of the cycle and foot bridge over the Arno, at Cascine Nuove, also only on foot, by bicycle or on horseback. You cannot enter from the sea or from the rivers
• With the motorhome: the regulations put motorhomes among category M1 vehicles, like cars, and let them in. You may drive only on the tarmac roads of the green zone and park only in the areas marked as car parks; at Easter, on Easter Monday, 25 April, 1 May and 2 June you may also leave your vehicle along the sides of the tarmac roads, in a row, without blocking the unsurfaced roads. Camping and sleeping in a motorhome on the Estate are always forbidden, so the motorhome leaves at closing time and goes back to Torre del Lago for the night. From the Aurelia follow the signs for the racecourse and viale delle Cascine to Ponte alle Trombe. The fines in the regulations range from 50 to 500 euros
• By bicycle from Torre del Lago: it is the finest way. You ride down from Torre del Lago to Marina di Torre del Lago on the cycle path, and from there an unsurfaced road runs parallel to the sea for a few kilometres, through the pine wood and the scrub of the Lecciona, as far as Marina di Vecchiano, as described in Visit Tuscany's "Tra le pinete e il lago" route. At the mouth of the Serchio there is no bridge: you head back inland, from Marina di Vecchiano towards Migliarino, and cross the river on the Aurelia bridge, a short stretch on the busy main road, which Visit Tuscany in its coastal route has you leave straight after the bridge; once off the Aurelia you head for the Marmo gate, on the Madonna dell'Acqua side, from which the Sterpaia road leads to Cascine Vecchie. With small children it is a whole day, and you come back the same way
• By bicycle from Pisa: since 18 July 2026 a cycle and foot bridge over the Arno, opened by the Comune of Pisa, has linked San Piero a Grado to Cascine Nuove, and with it the ciclopista del Trammino, the cycle path on the route of the old tram between Pisa and Marina di Pisa. From Cascine Nuove the viale delle Aquile Randagie runs straight through the pines to Cascine Vecchie
• By bus: at weekends Autolinee Toscane's line 26 leaves from the Sesta Porta in Pisa, stops in piazza dei Miracoli and has two stops on the Estate. From Torre del Lago you get to Pisa on the regional train, and the motorhome stays at Torre del Lago
• What you cannot do: visitors' motor vehicles do not go into the yellow zone or the red zone, so you cannot reach the sea by motorhome or car; coaches drop their passengers at the Cascine Vecchie roundabout

Practical information

The green zone and the yellow zone are free and do not need booking. You book the guided tours, the little train, the carriage, the horse and everything that takes you to the sea.

Contacts

Where it is

Tenuta di San Rossore, Pisa · Toscana

You set off from

Notes

• The Estate's opening hours, from the Park's 2026 regulations: in summer, from 1 April to 15 October, from 7:30 to 19:30; in winter, from 16 October to 31 March, from 7:30 to 17:30. Last entry is half an hour before closing. Entry to the green zone and the yellow zone is free. With an orange or red weather warning the yellow zone, the red zone and all the woods close; with a yellow warning or in wind the park rangers decide. On race days and event days the hours may change
• The green zone is the one along the main avenue, from the Sterpaia in the north to Cascine Nuove in the south, with Cascine Vecchie in the middle: here are the facilities, the car parks and the four barbecue areas with windbreaks, and you can also go round by carriage and on horseback without a guide. The yellow zone is made up of damp woods, meadows and planted pine forests, with the reserve of the bosco di San Bartolomeo, one of the oldest strips of woodland on the Estate: you can walk and cycle freely, but only on the marked paths, which the Park numbers from B001 to B012 on its 2026 map, and there are four Nordic walking routes from 2.8 to 14.5 kilometres. The red zone contains the reserves of the Palazzetto, the Paduletto and the Lame di Fuori, and all the beaches: you can only enter with an authorised guide, on the loop routes set by the Park, and with a ticket
• The red zone ticket, from the 2026 regulations: 8 euros, 5 euros from 6 to 14 years, free up to 6 years. It is usually already included in the guide's price, writes the Comune of Pisa on its tourism website. The Park's routes are two on foot, the Marinette and the Buca del Mare, two by bicycle, the Marinette and the Fortino, and four on horseback, from a short one for beginners to a long one for experienced riders; they all reach viewpoints over the sea
• The viale del Gombo, 4.4 kilometres long from Cascine Vecchie to the gate of the villa, has its own rules: the stretch in the green zone can also be driven, the one in the yellow zone is on foot or by bicycle, and the one in the red zone on foot or by bicycle only on Sundays and public holidays, without ever leaving the avenue; on other days, Saturday included, only with a guide. Dogs are not allowed on the avenue, in the yellow zone or in the red zone
• The beach of the Gombo and the sea: all the Estate's beaches are in the red zone, and you can only reach them on foot or by bicycle with an environmental guide. On the Estate swimming is always forbidden and you may not walk along the water's edge: the sea is seen from the viewpoints, writes the Comune of Pisa. The beach of the Gombo is a few metres from the villa that Gronchi had built, designed by the Roman architects Amedeo Luccichenti and Vincenzo Monaco, in place of the Savoy chalet destroyed in the war; in the nineteenth century the Lorraine grand dukes had built bathing facilities here, used by Franz Liszt among others. The villa cannot be visited: it opens for the Park's events, as in summer 2026 for a ViviParco concert. In summer 2026 the park rangers found a loggerhead turtle nest at San Rossore, Caretta caretta, never seen before on the Estate, and at Ferragosto, the 15 August holiday, the first hatchlings emerged. To swim you go further north, to the Lecciona and Marina di Vecchiano, the Park's free beaches on the bike route from Torre del Lago
• The little train and the guided bike ride, run by the Visitor Centre: on the weekend of 1 May 2026, for the Primavera nel Parco di San Rossore, spring in the park, the little train made a ninety-minute trip through the woods and pine forests, at 13 euros for adults, 9 euros from 4 to 12 years, free up to 3 years; the guided bike ride lasted two hours, at 13 euros for adults, 9 euros from 6 to 12 years, free up to 5 years. These are the prices published by Terre di Pisa for those days; the Visitor Centre does not publish a price list for the whole year. The Visitor Centre's tours run on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays; on weekdays only for groups of at least twenty people
• Other guided tours in 2026, among those published by Visit Tuscany: with the guide Michele Colombini of Vado e Vedo, the trek from Cascine Vecchie to the Sterpaia, a loop of four hours of which two and a half walking, from 15 euros, and by bicycle through the strict nature reserves to the sea, four and a half hours, from 25 euros with the permits included but without the bicycle, both with at least eight and at most twenty-five people, starting from the Visitor Centre (347 5870026). On 28 June 2026 there was also a guided walk of about seven hours to the beach of the Gombo, at 25 euros and 17 from 6 to 18 years, red zone ticket included, with a packed lunch
• Bike hire is run by the Top5Viaggi agency at the Cascine Vecchie Visitor Centre: according to the Park only from April to October, and according to the agency on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, with bicycles for adults and children, tandems and bike carriages. On Mondays the Visitor Centre and the bike hire are closed. On 1 May 2026 the bike hire was open from 10:00 to 18:00, and on 2 and 3 May from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 14:00 to 17:00. The prices are not published
• By carriage: San Rossore in Carrozza leaves from the Sterpaia area and runs horse-drawn carriage rides suitable for everyone, and according to Terre di Pisa also as far as the sea (330 206235). The prices are not published
• On horseback: the Equitiamo centre, at the Sterpaia, runs rides for beginners and experienced riders and, all year, pony activities for children; in the yellow zone and the red zone you can only ride with an environmental riding guide, and booking is recommended (338 3662431). The prices are not published
• Cascine Vecchie is the heart of the Estate: here Ferdinando I de' Medici built the Cascina Ferdinandea, and here are the roundabout where the viale del Gombo starts, the Visitor Centre, the starting point of the guided tours, and the places to eat: the Da Poldino trattoria, the Bottega del Parco, the park shop with the produce of the estate farm, and the restaurant of the Ippodromo, the racecourse. Further north, past the racecourse, the Sterpaia, the Savoy farmhouse, today a guesthouse with twenty-two rooms and a restaurant. To the south the viale delle Aquile Randagie, named in 2015 after the scouts who carried on in secret during Fascism, leads through the pines to Cascine Nuove and the bridge over the Arno
• The fallow deer and the wild boar: the deer were brought by the Medici, the wild boar by Elisa Bonaparte from the Maremma, for hunting. The guides show them in the meadows around the Sterpaia and in the pastures. The Park asks you to keep at least fifty metres from all wild animals, not to call them and not to feed them; and reminds you that the wolf also lives on the Estate. At the Boschetto live the semi-wild horses of San Rossore, of the Monterufolina breed, which the Park presents at the racecourse on 1 November 2026
• The dromedaries: in 2014 the scouts of AGESCI, the Italian Catholic scout association, gave three to the Park, and they live in the stables of the estate farm. They cannot be visited: they come out on a few occasions, to clean the beach and the dunes or for an environmental education day, wrote Finestre sull'Arte in July 2024
• Fires and barbecues: outside the four equipped areas of the green zone nothing may be lit, and in the areas you use only your own braziers with charcoal. In the fire risk period, which the Regione usually sets from 21 June to 21 September, barbecues are also banned: in 2026 the ban ran from 13 June to 13 September. Smoking is forbidden in the yellow zone and the red zone. The Estate's bins belong to the people who live and work there: visitors take their rubbish home, organic waste too
• Ticks and selvaggiume: from May to October there are ticks in the tall grass and the undergrowth, and in autumn in the woods a mite that the Pisans call selvaggiume, which irritates the skin. The Park recommends high shoes, trousers tucked into socks and long sleeves, and not sitting on damp grass and leaves
• The pine forests and the scale insect: the Park's stone pines are being attacked by the tortoise scale, which arrived at Tirrenia in 2023, blackens the crowns and can make the trees die; in October 2026 the Regione allocated 500,000 euros to treat more pines along the avenues with trunk injections, where about 1,700 a year are treated today
• Summer on the Estate: in 2026, from 26 June to 31 July, the Park organised ViviParco, a series of concerts and talks from Viareggio to San Rossore, which began at the Belvedere Puccini in Torre del Lago, almost all free with booking, in the garden of Villa Giraffa, at the Gombo villa, with transport from Cascine Vecchie at 9 euros, and on the beach. On holidays in spring and summer the green zone fills with families having picnics, and the Park licenses street vendors along the avenues
• The San Rossore racecourse, at viale delle Cascine 153, born from the 1829 track, races in autumn, winter and spring, not in summer: the 2026-2027 season opened on 29 October 2026 and ends on 4 April 2027 with the 137th Premio Pisa. In the autumn part there are fifteen race days, until 30 December, and on Sundays and public holidays there are shows on the track, ponies, a playground and the Ippolandia entertainment for children. The ticket for the 2026-2027 season is 5 euros, 4 reduced for over 65s, and the family ticket is 12 euros for two adults and at most two children aged 4 to 11; it can also be bought online on 2tickets.it

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