The University of Pisa, officially founded in 1343 by Pope Clement VI, is one of Italy’s oldest and most distinguished universities, with academic roots reaching back to the Middle Ages. It has played an especially important role in the development of the physical sciences: Galileo Galilei, who studied in Pisa, returned as professor of mathematics in 1589 and carried out some of his early scientific work there. Experimental physics became formally established at the university in 1748, when its first Chair of Experimental Physics was created. Over the following centuries, Pisa developed into a major centre for modern physics, associated with figures such as Nobel laureates Enrico Fermi and Carlo Rubbia. Today, the Enrico Fermi Department of Physics continues this tradition as an internationally recognised centre for advanced education and research in physics, including milestone results in optomechanics, photonics and optoelectronics from visible to THz range and superconductors.