tedgale

After 4 days in Florence (March 12 -15, departing March 16 am) we have a reservation at the Hotel Villa Marta, just outside of Lucca. We will be there 2 nights mid-week -- with the possibility of extending, to stay another night. We will have a car throughout this period.

What do Fodorites recommend doing in the vicinity, apart from seeing Lucca itself? For example:

I have read mixed views on Pisa: crowded, modern and grim VS. enchanting and walkable
Is there part of the Cinque Terre whose terrain is suitable for someone on heart medication, who is mobile but not very energetic these days?
What about the hills north and west of Lucca? Any villages to recommend?
What other places on the coast, if any, merit a day-trip in mid-March?

Thanks for the advice. We will not be bored, whatever we do -- but I"d like to get the best out of my first visit (other than a long-ago trip to Pisa, by train)

LRK

We rented bicycles (a few place right in town) and had a glorious ride, hugging the wall around the town. It's a shady, leisurely, delightful ride!

immimi

Oh, for sure drive north up the valley and visit Barga - it's
a very pleasant hilltown with a strong Scottish connection -
in other words, it's a hoot! Although it IS hilly, there
are paved roads through the town that wouldn't be too taxing.

A long day's drive would be through La Spezia and north to
the CT - it's a beautiful drive and you see some gorgeous
CT scenery w/o the towns.

cruiseluv

Lucca itself is lovely and you could certainly go twice during your stay. CT would be perfect as a day trip atht the pathway known as Via dell'amore is perfect for somebody like you , it is flat and takes approx 20-30 mins to walk. I have been there only in the summer, so I don't know how pleasant it would be in March.

IMO , Pisa gets an unfair bad rap. The area where the Tower is also has the big Cathedral and Baptistery. It is very impressive. I would certainly recommend going for a few hours.

Unfortunately, I never got to the mountains , the Garfagnana area. Barga is supposed to be a very nice town.

Flame123

We spent two nights about a year and a half ago in a tiny little hamlet just outside Lucca called Montecarlo. Here are my notes on these two days (which were in mid-November weather-wise) :


We drove first to Collodi which is where Pinocchio "was born" – the writer of the story apparently lived there and so they have a Pinocchio park, Pinocchio flats, etc. The town itself is small and if possible even steeper than Cortona!! We climbed and climbed and climbed and even MORE climbed and eventually go to the very top. It was beautiful at every step of the way and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We then drove to Bagni di Lucca which is another small town with a stream running through it. It is a thermal spa town where people come to take the waters. We had a great lunch there at Ristorante Antico Caffe Del Sonno which was once a monastery and beautiful. We enjoyed the tourist special which was a first course and a main and also a ricola and ham pizza which was great. We shared some house wine and thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the company.

We followed the passagiata way down towards the streams and bridges for some time after our meal and then made our way towards Cosagna via a very modern looking bar for a coffee along the way. Cosagna is a small pretty town but it was starting to rain (the very first true rain of our stay) and also getting dark so we cut it a bit short today and returned to the B&B by 6 PM.

We all went to have a short rest and decided to meet for dinner at 8 PM. We had dinner at a lovely restaurant close by (everything is close by – the town has 300 people total!). I had a Lucchiese type pasta with ragu sauce and others shared a huge plate of gnocchi with seafood and pronounced it wonderful. They started us off with a small antipasti on the house and we each had a glass of typical Montecarlo wine which was very good. We did not have room for a main course but we were not gonna pass up desert. There was a fabulous warm chocolate flan with mascarpone cream on the side and a large pastry wafer filled with mascarpone and strawberries which was to die for. We ended with two vin santo desert wines.

We asked (actually begged!!) for some cantucci, which were immediately brought out in a large plate and when they were almost gone, the plate was refilled, on the house, again. Quite a long, lovely fabulous meal and we laughed and laughed and enjoyed ourselves till very late at night!!

Our second day was our first completely and truly rainy day. We found the one and only bar open in Montecarlo apparently on a Wednesday and had truly awful (is that possible) coffee and cornetto. And then we made the drive to Castelnuovo Garfagnana. It was a nice ride, albeit rainy and foggy/cloudy but when we got there we walked around and it was yet another beautiful little town.

We had lunch in a real "worker's restaurant" where people who did not know each other were seated together and we had some non-descript pasta dishes (no pici here!!!). House wine and water rounded out the meal and we wanted some gelato afterwards but none could be found.

We drove to Cascio, which was another small town, very beautiful and through winding forest roads to get to it. By this time the rain was harder and worse but still we were able to walk for a while. We had another coffee on the way back and then drove back to Montecarlo.

We hung out together, took a walk around the town towards evening and had the rest of our last provisions for dinner at the B&B kitchen in the evening. We were quite tired so went to bed early.

Mimar

Lucca having been a wealthy olive oil producing area, there are a number of villas in the vicinity open to visitors. Here are 2 links: http://www.welcometuscany.it/tuscany...cca_villas.htm and www.initaly.com/regions/villluca.htm

We enjoyed seeing the gardens of the Villa Reale, redesigned after the villa was appropriated by Napolean's sister.

bobthenavigator

I like the route north---the Devils Bridge, Barga, and then to Castelnuovo Garfagna. Pretty country !

LaVisiteure

I second the route north to Barga and the Garfagnana. My son-in-law grew up in Castelnuovo, and it's a lovely little town with some good restaurants, where (unlike Barga) you will not find any tourists. It's all very different from the Lucca-Pisa plain.

tedgale

Terrific suggestions - thanks to all who have contributed so far.