We are staying in La Spezia we would like to take day trips to Florence and to the country side.
What is the best way and if by train how long of a trip would it be? I see there are plenty of tours they seem to pick you up at the hotel, but in Florence and we are not staying in Florence.
Are we making a mistake to travel back and forth to Florence, Tuscany and Pisa? We are staying 4 days in La Spezia.
For Florence, train is the obvious way. Look up times and prices on the Trenitalia website: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
I just did a quick check, La Spezia Centrale to Firenze S. M. Novella takes about 2¼ hours, with one change in Pisa, and costs €13.50. This is "Regionale" trains, so no discount for advance purchase, buy at the station.
The disadvantage of a tour in Florence (or many other places in Italy) is that vehicles are not allowed into the city centre. You have to visit on foot.
Your base is La Spezia and you are not planning to use it to tour towns close by so I would say you are making a mistake if you are planning to travel back and forth to Tuscany each day.
If your goal is to visit Florence and the Tuscan countryside, you need to stay in Florence.
You will burn a lot of your precious time training around. The easy place to visit is 5 Terre from La Spezia. Otherwise Florence as mentioned above is 5 hours of travel but doable. Pisa is close by train. Lucca too. Any of the towns on the train line to Florence. Genoa is a possibility. Viareggio has good beaches.
Rent a car if you to goto hill towns.
Thank you all for your replies! Do any of you think we could enjoy at least one full day and evening in Florence and or tuscan countryside. We really like to do wine/food tasting tour and sightseeing.
If you want to do the tower at pisa, you need reservations far in advance
