Pisa

Everyone knows the tower. Almost no one knows the city, and that is Pisa's secret.

It sits flat on the Arno near the coast, a real working city of about 90,000 with one of the oldest universities in the world threaded through it. The famous tower leans in the Piazza dei Miracoli at one edge of town, mobbed by day-trippers, but walk ten minutes and you are in the actual Pisa: riverside streets, a daily market in Piazza Sant'Omobono, student bars, the elegant Verdi theater, and a quiet Oltrarno-style district across the bridges. Because three universities fill it, the city has a year-round buzz, plenty of cheap places to eat, and a younger pulse than most Tuscan towns. The student demographic also keeps prices reasonable for the region.