I've picked up cheap Ryanair flights to Pisa over the first weekend in February. We arrive in Pisa on the morning of Saturday Feb 3 & the return flight leaves on the morning of Monday Feb 5.

When I booked the flights my intention was to stay in Florence, which I understand is only about an hour by train from Pisa.

However...our flight home on the Monday leaves at 11.15 a.m. which means that we would have to check in by 10.30 at very latest. Allowing for an hour on the train to Pisa that means catching a train at around 9.00/9.15. So, depending on the location of our acommodation in Florence we would probably have to get underway at around 8.30 or so; suddenly Florence doesn't seem like such an attractive proposition.

Possible alternatives would seem to be Pisa itself or Lucca. I've done some homework & from what I've read Lucca seems to be the more attractive of the two but I'm guessing that it would be very quiet in early February.

By staying in Pisa we could easily travel through to Florence on the Sunday & spend the day there. I'm getting very mixed messages about Pisa, though, particularly in terms of acommodation. Reviews on Tripadvisor seem to be all over the place with nowhere having consistently good reports. Self-catering acommodation in Pisa for 3 people over 2 nights seems to be non-existent.

We're pretty easily pleased - we'd like to do a bit of walking, a bit of sightseeing, some shopping & have a decent choice of restaurants. We don't want riotous nightlife but it would be good to go somewhere with a bit of life of about it. We just want a quick weekend Italy fix, really.

So, any thoughts? Would Lucca be too dead at that time of year? Is Pisa worth the visit?
Or would we best just booking somewhere near the railway station in Florence & making that early morning journey back to Pisa airport on the Monday morning?

Thanks for your help.

Jim

Pisa is, as you may have guessed, very touristy, even more so on a weekend. But since you have only two nights I suggest you stay there and enjoy the place. There's a great medieval church, you can go up the tower and find some quieter areas to explore. And some great food if you get some help from a guidebook. Otherwise you're going to spend a lot of your very limited time on trains.

Hi Jim! One thing I would never ever do is depend on a train in Italy when I had a flight to catch the same day. There could be a strike or the train could be running late (which has happened to me in Florence). You do not want to miss your flight home. Well actually you might, lol, but I am sure that would really mess up your plans and budget.

A thought..what about seeing Pisa (the Tower and Duomo etc., is what I assume you are interested in) when you arrive in Pisa. You really don't need that long, you would need to make reservations to climb the tower if you want to do that.

Then you could catch a train to Florence and enjoy Florence the rest of Saturday, have dinner, stayovernight and either enjoy Florence on Sunday or train to Lucca. Towards the end of the afternoon Sunday you could train back to Pisa and stayovernight there so that you are near the airport to fly home.

You could have your main meal Sunday afternoon in either Florence or Lucca (which a lot of my friends in Italy do) and than have a pizza or something Sunday evening in Pisa.

Just one thought. Best regards.

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions - LoveItaly, you have given me something to think about.

Best Wishes,

Jim

TTT