Our home base will be Lucca, Italy for 9 days in August. We plan to go to Florence and Cinque Terra but have four unplanned days. We would love to hear about your favorite places and recommendations around this area. Also, do we need to rent a car or can we sight see by train? Anyone have a day bike trip they would recommend?

We rented an apartment in Lucca and it was one of our favorite destinations.

We loved renting bikes and riding around the walls of the city - we had so much fun the first time, we went around for a second loop! If we had more time, we would have done that again.

We also visited San Gimignano from there and the town of Vinci (hometown of Leonardo da Vinci).

We did have a rental car though, so I can't speak to the trains.

If you get a chance to try the restaurant that serves "slow food" (big sign out front) definitely try it. The food was amazing. And it was a four hour meal with great conversation and such delicious food. One of the highlights of our trip.

Hi Megan,

Agree with the suggestion about biking on the walls of Lucca, its a great way to dip in and out to see the city. Market days are especially good - go in the morning for deals. Sorry, I don't remember which days, but that's easy to find out when you're there.

We had some of our guests go to Via Reggio for the day - great little beach town and a short train ride from Lucca.

Also, we took the train from Lucca to Genoa for the day. Beautiful architecture, shopping, a lovely train ride along the coast, and there's also a beach (although we didn't go there). I think you could also take a boat ride to Portofino from Genoa, we would do that next time.

Enjoy!

Jolene

There's always Pisa. Nearer there are a number of villas and/or gardens open to visitors. The area around Lucca was a rich, olive growing region, and those olive growers and others spent money on big houses. Here's a link: http://www.knowital.com/html/lucca_-...d_gardens.html. (I'd double-check the opening days and times.) However, you'd probably need a car or a driver to see these.

Montecatini Terme is a belle-époque spa town AND an older "alto" town reached by a funicular. It's an easy day trip from Lucca, about 30 minutes by train one way.

There is a summer opera school in MT that stages public performances.

Barga is a wonderful town very near Lucca. You can get to it by train, I did, but I recommend renting a car. There is a mountain to climb between the station and the town with a busy narrow winding road one must walk along. There were no taxis so I walked but no one in their right mind would do it. But I was glad I did, recommend the town highly, just not the walk.

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