Daytrip: Florence to Pisa and Lucca
 

Hi
Has anyone gone to both in one day from Florence? I believe that the train from Florence goes to the Pisa Centrale station, and that is walkable to the Piazza in Pisa.
If after an hour or two I wanted to go to Lucca, and from there back to Florence, do I have to use different train stations?
Is the Lucca train station centrally located vis a vis sightseeing?
etc etc
thanks

Hi Elaine....I understand the train station in Lucca is just outside the city wall and has several stops each day. Pls be sure it travels onto Florence, however, as the trains are notorious for strikes, last minute changes, etc... Check out the various trains schedules on the internet to get a better fix on your question.
Bob

I've done this in one day and suggest you go to Lucca first and then Pisa. Lucca pretty much shuts down in the afternoon. I would spend the morning touring Lucca, have lunch, then catch the train to Pisa.

You can catch a bus to Lucca across the street from the Florence train station. We took the bus because it was the heat wave of 2003 and the bus had AC. The train was a regional train without AC.

The travel time between Florence and Lucca are about the same whether you take the bus or train.

From Lucca we caught an R train to the S. Rossore station which is closer to the tower. I think the ride was about 20 minutes. When you get off the train, you cross the tracks and go through the fence.

After seeing the tower, we caught a bus to Pisa Centrale to get the train back to Florence.

There is an Il Papiro across the street from the tower which had better prices than the one in Florence. They sell handmade papers and cards.

There are busses that run between the tower and Pisa Centrale for about 1E.

The Lucca station is an easy walk to the old town.

Thanks for this thread elaine, and thanks to kybourban for the advice. We were planning to leave Florence to go to Rapallo for a 6 night stay, and only go thru Pisa on the way. We will add Lucca to our plans that day. Phil

Pisa in general seemed perfectly safe to me, but San Rossore station and environs were not safe at all. We saw an elderly American man near the station who had been violently mugged and was bleeding and had been robbed. There were syringes and other addict detritus in the underpass near the station. I would not use that station. I still find the memory of the entire experience, even the part before we saw the injured man, just walking through the trash left by addicts, creepy.

Phil - I'm not sure there will be luggage storage at the train station in Lucca.

Sorry to jump into your thread this way elaine, but I get so excited about planning our 3 weeks in southern Switzerland and northern Italy. Kybourban- I will look into the baggage problem--even though we should have only a 20 lb. bag each, we don't want to take them sightseeing. Thanks, Phil

Hi
a friend of mine just got back from Italy and spent an an afternoon in Lucca. She didn't feel that the town had shut down.
Knowing that I will spend only a couple of hours in Pisa, I think I'd prefer to go there in the morning and go on to Lucca in the pm. If I love Lucca, I can then stay as long as I like, even into the evening. Days aren't terribly long in early April, I'd rather run out of daylight in Lucca then in Pisa.

So, if I go from F to Pisa first, how would the logistics of train vs bus, and the different train stations, be accounted for?

Thank you all so far.

ttt

one more try

Elaine - If you are going to Pisa first, take the train from Florence to Pisa Centrale. There will be many to choose from, ES, IC, R. From Pisa Centrale there is the shuttle bus to the tower. After touring the tower take the shuttle bus(catch it beside the tower) back to Centrale to catch the train to Lucca. This will probably be an R or D train. I don't think the Pisa S. Rossore station is manned all of the time so I don't think you could purchase a ticket there.
Of course you can look at the schedules on trenitalia.com

thanks, I was getting confused about whether the train from Pisa to Lucca runs from Pisa Centrale or Pisa San Rossore. Or is it both? And then I guess it's the bus back from Lucca to Florence?

I don't remember how many busses there were daily between Lucca and Florence but I doubt if they run late. I think you will need to train back from Lucca to Florence.

one last topping of my own

Just to add more confusion - we went to Pisa in the morning from Florence, then on to Lucca in the afternoon, and back to Florence a few weeks ago all on trains. We purchased all three tickets in Florence. The first is Firenze to Pisa Centrale, the second Pisa S. Rossore to Lucca. I asked the ticket agent about it and she said that they both are the same. In reality, we got off and on again at Pisa Centrale where there is a bus to the tower area. Catch the #1 bus across the street from the station for the shortest ride.
We did this on a Sunday and really enjoyed the walk around the wall at Lucca late in the afternoon when many local families were strolling.
On Sunday in Pisa the only tobacco shop that seemed to be open for bus tickets was in the train station.
It's a nice day trip.

thanks judybr

Bear with me, I'm not clear.
After your visit to the tower in Pisa, you went back to the Centrale station to go on to Lucca? Or, in Pisa you boarded at the SR station for the train to Lucca?

Pisa Centrale and S. Rossore are not the same station. If judybr boarded the train at Centrale with a ticket that was for S. Rossore/Lucca then she was riding without a valid ticket and could have been fined. The fines are the price of the ticket + 25 Euro if caught. The stations are a 7 minute train ride apart.

ok, I went to trenitalia and am posting this information here for future searches.

The trains from Firenze (Florence) to Pisa go to Pisa Centrale station (abbreviated as Pisa C.)
The train route from Pisa to Lucca has trains leaving Pisa from either Pisa Central or Pisa S. Rossore stations.
I don't know if each train goes through both stations or not, but there are departures listed from both Pisa stations.

So, if you've seen the Leaning Tower and want to go back to Florence, you walk back to Centrale station in Pisa.
If you want to go on to Lucca, you can check departures from either of the two Pisa station, but the S. R. station is closer to the Leaning Tower.

I didn't mean to say walk back to Centrale, you could take a bus.