Places to Explore In Pisa, Lucca, and Northwest Tuscany

Discover the best places to explore in Pisa, Lucca, and Northwest Tuscany with curated recommendations from our travel experts.

Abetone

Abetone is one of the most-visited vacation spots in the Apennine Mountains, where Tuscans, Emilia-Romagnans, and others come to ski. Set above two valleys, the...

  • 1 Restaurants
  • 1 Hotels
  • 1 Things To Do

Bagni di Lucca

Pretty Bagni di Lucca was a fashionable spa town in the early 19th century—in part because of its thermal waters. The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe...

  • 1 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 2 Things To Do

Barga

Barga is a lovely little city (one of Italy’s smallest under that classification) with a finely preserved medieval core. It produced textiles—mostly silk—during the Renaissance...

  • 0 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 4 Things To Do

Carrara

Carrara, from which the famous white marble takes its name, lies in a beautiful valley midway up a spectacular mountain in the Apuane Alps. The...

  • 0 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 5 Things To Do

Castelnuovo di Garfagnana

Castelnuovo di Garfagnana might be the best base for exploring the Garfagnana, because it's central with respect to the other towns. During the Renaissance the...

  • 1 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 3 Things To Do

Empoli

Empoli, roughly halfway between Florence and Pisa, is a small town with a long history. References to the city first appear in documents from the...

  • 2 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 4 Things To Do

Forte dei Marmi

Forte dei Marmi is a playground for wealthy Italians and equally well-heeled visitors. Its wide, sandy beaches—strands are 6 km (4 miles) long—have the Alpi...

  • 3 Restaurants
  • 2 Hotels
  • 2 Things To Do

Livorno

Livorno is a gritty city with a long and interesting history. In the early Middle Ages it alternately belonged to Pisa and Genoa. In 1421...

  • 4 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 0 Things To Do

Lucca

Ramparts built in the 16th and 17th centuries enclose a charming fortress town filled with churches (99 of them), terracotta–roofed buildings, and narrow cobblestone streets...

  • 3 Restaurants
  • 1 Hotels
  • 16 Things To Do

Montecatini Terme

Immortalized in Fellini's film 8½, Montecatini Terme is one of Italy's premier terme (spas). Known for their curative powers—and, at least once upon a time...

  • 1 Restaurants
  • 1 Hotels
  • 3 Things To Do

Montelupo

This small town, which straddles the Arno, and its surrounding villages, have been producing ceramics for centuries. A ceramics museum proudly displays the work of...

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  • 0 Hotels
  • 5 Things To Do

Pisa

If you can get beyond the kitsch of the stalls hawking cheap souvenirs around the Leaning Tower, you'll find that Pisa has much to offer...

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  • 0 Hotels
  • 6 Things To Do

Pistoia

Founded in the 2nd century BC as a support post for Roman troops, Pistoia grew over the centuries into an important trading center. In the...

  • 3 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 10 Things To Do

Prato

The wool industry in this city, one of the world's largest producers of cloth, was famous throughout Europe as early as the 13th century. Business...

  • 3 Restaurants
  • 1 Hotels
  • 10 Things To Do

San Marcello Pistoiese

This small town—small, but still the largest in the area—bustles in summer and winter (when it's one of Tuscany's few ski destinations), but calms down...

  • 0 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 2 Things To Do

San Miniato

San Miniato has a history dating to Etruscan and Roman times; today it's a tiny, pristine hill town of narrow streets lined with austere 13th-...

  • 4 Restaurants
  • 1 Hotels
  • 5 Things To Do

Viareggio

Tobias Smollett (1721–71), the English novelist, wrote in the 1760s that Viareggio was "a kind of sea-port on the Mediterranean. . . . The roads...

  • 2 Restaurants
  • 1 Hotels
  • 1 Things To Do

Vinci

The small hill town from which Leonardo da Vinci derived his name is a short drive or bus ride north of Empoli. At the church...

  • 0 Restaurants
  • 0 Hotels
  • 2 Things To Do

Explore Pisa, Lucca, and Northwest Tuscany

Sights 59

Shopping 9

Nightlife 2

Performing Arts 11

Restaurants 28

Hotels 8
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