Hi,

I'll be staying in Lucca from 8/6 to 8/18 attending the Koine language school. I will not have a car.

I would like to plan some daytrips/ excursions I can do via train or bus from Lucca for the weekend in between and for Ferragosto( the school will be closed that day). I would appreciate if any of you that are familiar with the area could advise which towns would be reasonably easy to visit. I thought Sat. or Sunday I could visit Siena( although it doesn't look that close?).
Another area that intrigues me is the Garfagnana. Any specific towns that are worth visiting and that I could reach via public transport?

Thank you for any guidance you can offer!

A half-day trip would be Pisa (y'know, the one with the gravity-challenged tower). Less than 30 minutes by train from Lucca.

Pisa was a nice day trip for us, too.

We took the bus. It was a short ride through some pretty countryside.

Byrd

Hi C,

Florence is 2 hr from Lucca by train.

Siena is another 1:30 hr.

I have visited Barga (in Garfagnana area) from Lucca, frequent bus takes about 1 1/4 hours.

Barga is a lovely hill town, with beautiful Romamesque style Duomo on the top of the hill, the view of facing the surrounding mountains is breathtaking.

The Lazzi bus to Florence from Lucca is faster than the train. It takes about 70 minutes.

I concur with all the above suggestions, and will add that the train from Lucca to Pisa is very quick and frequent.

Also Montecatini Terme and Alto are easy by train and bus.

Thank you so much to all of you for your suggestions!

Please let me know if anything else comes to mind.

Just returned from Lucca, lovely city. Rent bikes atop the wall. We ran into a couple who had biked from Pisa. Took the train to Pisa ourselves, Galileo was born there - don't miss the duomo. Also support the Florence recommendations. Buy some olive oil in Lucca to bring home!

Here is recent article that might spark some ideas

.http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/05/2...l/21italy.html

<Buy some olive oil in Lucca to bring home!>

Lucca was one of my favorite towns in Italy. I had some great olive oil in Montalcino but intended to wait to purchase a bottle at the airport in Rome rather than carry it around Italy with me, but it took so long to check in that I didn't have time to shop.

On my first trip to the grocery store when I got home I picked up some olive oil and took a good look at the label after I'd tasted it -- exceptionally good. And it was from Lucca! I've been buying it ever since.

I am not sure how slow the train to Florence from Lucca is nowadays such that somebody here posted it took 2 hours, but it only too us 1 hour and 15 minutes by train for the same trip 2 years ago.