The line skirts the N. bank of the Arno passing the Cascine and numerous villas. Beyond stat. S. Donnino the valley of the Arno expands. Stat. Signa with its gray pinnacles and towers is celebrated for its straw-plaiting establishment. The line intersects undulating vineyards, crosses the Ombrone, which falls into the Arno, and enters the defile of the Gonfolina which separates the middle from the lower valley of the Arno. Stat. Montelupo is approached by an iron bridge across the Arno. Beyond it the Villa Ambrogiana is visible on the r., founded by Ferdinand I. on the site of an old castle of the Ardinghelli. Then crossing the small river Pesa the train reaches
Stat. Empoli, a small town (6000 inhab.) with antique buildings and narrow streets, situated in a fertile district. Here the line to Siena diverges to the S. The following stations are S. Pierino, S. Romano and La Rotta. To the r. rise the Apennines; to the 1. on the height San Miniato dei Tedeschi, a small town which the emp. Frederick II. in 1226 elevated to the rank of the seat of the Vicar of the empire. Stat. Pontedera at the influx of the Era into the Arno, where the road to Volterra diverges. Stat. Cascina on the Arno, where on the day of S. Vittorio, July 28th, 1364, the Pisans were defeated by the Florentines. Stat. Navacchio; to the r. the Monti Pisani with the ruins of a castle on the summit of Verruca.
The railway from Pisa to Leghorn traverses flat meadow land intersected by cuttings and near Leghorn crosses the Arno-Canal.