  We present a new determination of the distance (and age) of the Galactic
globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104) based on the fit of its white dwarf (WD)
cooling sequence with the empirical fiducial sequence of local WD with known
trigonometric parallax, following the method described in Renzini et al.
(1996). Both the cluster and the local WDs were imaged with HST+WFPC2 using the
same instrument setup. We obtained an apparent distance modulus of
$(m-M)_V=13.27\pm0.14$ consistent with previous ground-based determinations and
shorter than that found using HIPPARCOS subdwarfs. Coupling our distance
determination with a new measure of the apparent magnitude of the main sequence
turnoff, based on our HST data, we derive an age of $13\pm2.5$ Gyr.
