Tuscan Time Frames and trains.
 

Hello travelers!

My wife and I am planning a glorious return trip to Italy in Sept and are trying to decide the best use of our time when we leave Sorrento and head to Tuscany. We know we want to see Pisa/Lucca since we did not see it last time we were in Italy but we cannot decide the best way to do that and thought maybe someone that has actually experienced it might have a better idea of what we can actually do in real time.

First of all, we leave Sorrento on Tuesday to relocate and cannot decide if we should take the train into Florence and then travel on to Pisa via Lucca or if we should travel directly into Pisa. We do plan on renting a car at some point to drive around Tuscany so we could do that at that time too and then park it.

Also time-wise is it even possible to leave Sorrento in the morning and squeeeze in both Pisa and Lucca? Then finish the day staying in Cinque Terre somewhere? Possibly Vernazza? That way we could wake the following morning and spend the better part of the day touring Cinque before we head south to Volterra.

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

Also time-wise is it even possible to leave Sorrento in the morning and squeeeze in both Pisa and Lucca? Then finish the day staying in Cinque Terre somewhere?>

yes but... about 4-5 hours to Pisa - an hour or so for the Leaning Tower - hop on a train from Pisa San Leandro (sp?) station right near the tower to Lucca - a few hours here and hop train back to Pisa and catch trains to La Spezia, change to the milk trains that constantly shuttle back and forth between all 5 Lands. Yes possible but a full day and you'd want to book a Tower ascent, if in the plans, in advance or you could wait eons in line.

Guess I would say drop Lucca and include it once you got your car - but do not miss this wonderful walled medieval town known for its many old towers where the wealthy escaped both the rabble down below and the plague down there as well.

Oh for lots of great info on Italian trains check out www.trenitali.com - score some discounted tickets from Naples to Rome (1.5 hours - I forgot to add that onto the 4-5 hours from Rome to Pisa - take the coastal route just as quick and more scenic and cheaper too if you do not get a discounted ticket as these are largely IC trains not high-speed ones as you take via Florence to Pisa Centrale. - andway other great train sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Well, I am reading travel newsgroups and forums since 15 years, and it looks that people is trying to cram more and more destination into shorter and shorter time frames. IMHO Sorrento to Vernazza is already a complex itinerary with multiple changes. Stopping in Pisa for a quick visit is possible but tiring, especially if you have to take care of luggage. But adding Lucca is completely crazy. - And what is the end of this? Overnighting in Vernazza, then backtracking to Volterra (no rail links). Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

These are great responses. Thank you for the wealth of information PalenQ.

I have decided that a better way to approach this would be to relocate from Sorrento to Vernazza and just spend the remainder of the day there doing whatever the actual time allows. Waking the next morning and hitting Pisa, then Lucca (is it possible to rent a car there?) then drive and end up in Volterra.

Does that itinerary make sense or is it still way to much?

bump.

PalenQ,
I believe the station closest to the Tower is San Rossore. It's a little known station and is a 5 minute walk to the Tower.

From there you can go back to the station and catch the train to Lucca from the spot you got off the train.

You don't have to go all the way across the tracks to the little station building.

Just make sure you buy a train ticket to continue on to Lucca at the time you buy the ticket to Pisa.

I did all this. Florence to Pisa. Spent an hour or so around the Tower. Then on to Lucca for a good part of the day. Rented bikes and rode around on the wall. Then wandered the town.

After that trained to La Spezia and spent some time in Cinque Terre. Watched the sun set in Riomagiore and had an outdoor dinner there.

We did not rush at all but did it very efficiently.

Thank you Myer. Sounds like some version of it might work. Of course I wish I had more time, but I am glad for the time I do have.

You can't rent a car in Lucca. You will either need to rent one in La Spezia, and drive to Lucca and Pisa, or take the train to Lucca and then head to Pisa to rent the car in Pisa.

If you rent the car in La Spezia, you need to pay careful attention about where you may and may not drive in Lucca and Pisa, or else you risk being caught on video cameras and the police will send you a whopping traffic violation fine via your car rental agency.

If you go from Vernazza to Lucca by train, you can get off when you switch trains in Pisa and stow your luggage in the Pisa train station, and then continue on to Lucca by train. (There is no place to store your luggage in Lucca.) Come back to Pisa, see the sights, and return to the train station to pick up your luggage and rent a car. The car rental office will stay open until 7,30 pm -- but since it is an hour's drive to Volterra and it will be easiest if you arrive before dark, aim to pick up the car rental no later than 6pm.

Since you asked if this is "too much", my reaction is that if you have just been in Sorrento, making all that effort to look at another sunset sea view for a few hours wouldn't appeal to me. (What if it rains?) The Amalfi coast is much more spectacular. I'd rather take Lucca and Pisa in a more relaxed way. Many people who go to Pisa never do more than take a picture of themselves with the tower, but the cemetery that is part of the original complex is of great historic interest (it was bombed by the Americans in WW2 and its artwork is being painstaking restored) and the interior of the architecturally grand cathedral of Pisa is one of the most impressive in Renaissance Tuscany. The small university city that lies between the train station and the tower in Pisa has markets, churches, cafes, and is very untouristy. Lucca is a city with a great many small details, and it is nice to have time to appreciate that.

>>>I believe the station closest to the Tower is San Rossore. It's a little known station and is a 5 minute walk to the Tower.<<<

There is no luggage storage at S. Rossore and it's really not practical to drag luggage with you along to see the tower. I think I would do it the day after Vernazza although I think all of this is entirely too much rushing around. Additionally, I find Lucca totally boring.

Starting in Sorrento, you have to take the local commuter train to Naples (75 minutes), change to a train to Florence (3 hours), change to train to Pisa (1 hour), train to Lucca (30 minutes), train to Vernazza (Lucca to Vernazza takes 2- 3 hours and at least two train changes). As you can see, this is a full day of travel without even factoring in time wait in stations, checking and retrieving luggage, sightseeing, etc. No way I would do this especially since you are only going to spend a couple of hours in Vernazza. You are just checking places off a list, but not actually visiting them.

Actually, you CAN rent a car in Lucca. There are two agencies about equal distance from the train station and outside the city walls. Both are open Mon-Fri 9:00a-noon and 3:30p-6:30p, and Sat 10:00a-noon. Closed Sundays.

http://www.autoeurope.com/#

There is no luggage storage at S. Rossore and it's really not practical to drag luggage with you along to see the towe>

It's a 5-minute walk from S Rossore to the Tower - heck you could walk in many train stations more than 5 minutes and there is a left-luggage office right at the Tower. Then a short 5-minute walk back to S Rossore station to get trains to Lucca.

We had to cross the tracks at S. Rossore, but it's still not practical unless you are just going to look at the tower one minute and leave. Most people book a time to climb the tower, visit the baptistry/catherdral, etc., not just the tower. You wouldn't be able to drag your luggage around Lucca either as there is no storage there.

The entire day is just not practical. At least 9-10 hours of train travel doesn't leave time to visit anything.

Hey, sorry for the bum info about Lucca. I was going by memory. Glad somebody knew better.

I agree that it would be a real drag -- literally -- to carry luggage around Pisa. I'm not even sure they would let you inside some of the monuments with it.

But as far as I can tell, these people are planning to go Vernazza from Sorrento. They can either pick up a car in La Spezia and put their luggage in the trunk and drive to Lucca/Pisa, or they can take the train with their luggage to either Lucca or Pisa and rent the car there.

end up in Lucca the first day - at the most! And that is more than enough IMO. Skip Pisa - stay the night in Lucca, rent a car there if possible, drive to Pisa's Leaning Tower area - plenty of parking nearby IME and motor up to the Cinque Terre.

Starting in Sorrento, you have to take the local commuter train to Naples (75 minutes), change to a train to Florence (3 hours), change to train to Pisa (1 hour), train to Lucca (30 minutes), train to Vernazza (Lucca to Vernazza takes 2- 3 hours and at least two train changes).

Ugggh this sound like a nightmare scenario. We really are not the crossing things off the list type. This is also not our first trip to Italy or Tuscany. I honestly wanted to lay eyes and feet on the ground in Vernazza long enough to check it out a little and maybe see a sunset since we were so close to the region...that way we would know if we had an interest in going back there as we explore further north/northwest Italy sometime in on a future trip.

I am going to re think this a little. I know that day is a travel day and it is going to be a half day or worse in general so I was trying to carve a little something more out of it. AFTER that day we plan to spend one day in the Volterra area and one in the Cotona area then finallly end in Florence for a day. We have already driven around that region so we know not to plan for much and allow for serendipity.

These are great thoughts and conversations. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Alitalia generally has two flights a day from Naples to Genoa. The flight is 90 minutes. I believe that the first one leaves very early in the morning (before 8am) and the second one around 4pm -- too late for the sunset. To comfortably make the early morning flight, I would probably relocate to Naples for the night and take a taxi to the airport when it opens, but you might be able to be willing to get up earlier in Sorrento and pay for the longer taxi ride from there, or find an early enough bus to the airport.

Once you arrive in Genova, you can rent a car and drive 2 hours to a parking lot near Vernazza, or it's a 40-minute bus ride from the airport to the Brignole train station in central Genoa, where you can board a train and be in Vernazza in about 90 minutes, usually with one change of train. It is a pretty ride with sea views (prettier than the autostrada drive, which cuts inland).

If you spring for this expensive, heavy-carbon-footprint option, make sure you re-confirm your flight with Alitalia 24 hours ahead of time, because at least once they cancelled the flight on me for reasons other than weather. (At that point, I booked the next non-stop flight to Milan and took the train from there down to the coast, although it would have been possible for me to go to the Naples train station and find a train ride north as well.) I don't know if anybody flies Naples to Pisa, but that would also be a good option. In that case, I would rent the car at the airport and drive.