Day trips from Lucca

Here's my list of day trips from Lucca I compiled - I did not accomplish all of them:

Pietrasanta - small, arty upscale community
Viareggio - blue collar beach resort community
Forte dei Marmi - upscale beach resort area - fancy, designer market
Pistoia - pretty, everyday Italian town with old core
Prato - smaller town, great textile museum
Barga - Scottish/Italian town
Sarzana - Town by same designer as Lucca (I heard) just over the hill from Lerici resorty town on Bay of La Spezia
Castelnuovo di Garfagnana - castle town, great theater if you can see it
All these should be reachable by train (probably train and maybe taxi for Forte dei Marmi)
Montecarlo - nearby hill town - mass transit is difficult - bus is your only bet

I used this company for a local tour and the guide was local and good. They offer more excursions but I haven't used them for that:
https://en.turislucca.com/guided-tours-for-individuals/jeep-tour-of-the-marble-quarries-2/

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Hey Catmom, you didn't ask but here's my Lucca primer anyway:

Amazing local guide who knows everyone and everything: https://www.paolamoschini.com/

There are five climbable towers in town and there is a river path for biking and you can go as far as Pisa if you want to.

Best local pizza experience - Pizzeria da Felice - always packed and spilling into the street outside with little quarter given to tourists. Run the way it always has been with pizza and cecina sold by weight. Try the cecina with the pepper when offered.
Probably better pizza but less of an experience is Itaco across town.

Best gelato; Ele (formally De' Coltelli) and Momo in either location. There are other good places but these are the best - ele for wacky combos and amazing fruit flavors.

Best sandwich place: Ciacco on P.za Napoleone. Also salads as big as your head - not kidding. If there's a crowd waiting just check in with the person running the front and she'll get to you in order - just trust the system.
Second best sandwch place - very different sandwiches - Pan di strada - Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi
Both places have excellent Cicchetti as well.

Cheaper local wine store: Vini e Liquori di Ugo Massei Via Sant'Andrea, 19 - owner only speaks Italian.

So many good restaurants - always safer to make a reservation if you really want to eat someplace specific. Piazza dell'Anfiteatro is beautiful and worth wandering through at night but is for tourists not locals. If you want to make that scene Sotto Sotto has the respect of the locals so I'd eat there.
Rosticceria Da Nonna Tati on the tiny Via Santa Zita - next to the laundromat in an old bakery location. They are doing new things with Italian food, but not crazy, and it's all really good but unusual given the adherence to "nonna's kitchen" in Tuscany.

There are musical performances every night ranging from free to expensive opera all over town. Check the various websites but also look at the fliers around town. The Grapevine magazine calendar is a good place to start: https://www.luccagrapevine.com/
Example schedule: https://www.luccagrapevine.com/february2025/WO.pdf
https://eventi.turismo.lucca.it/en/

In Lucca, as in Italy, they respect the siesta and la domenica so expect closures in the middle of the afternoon and on Sunday with some places tacking on Monday as well. Plan accordingly.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thank you both so much for all of the suggestions and detail!

This article has a link to Carrara Marble Tours: https://www.wanderingitaly.com/places/carrara-marble-tour.html
Viareggio is very much more than a blue collar beach town and is a great day trip which we do once or twice a year. It has very long and always active Lungomare full of shops, restaurants, cafes - many in architecturally beautiful buildings of the Liberty Style which is the Italian variant of Art Nouveau. There are also large umbrella pine parks both to the north and south of the center - good for walks and which have area of amusements for kids & bike rentals. There is a long pier that extends out seaward from the center for walking and gawking. Midday there are 'fry boats' docked alongside which offer freshly cooked seafood for a light lunch or snack. Adjacent to the center is a large marina area with docks and boatyards where you can inspect every imaginable type of boat from dinghy to oligarchic.
If you are into opera, visit nearby Torre del Largo with the Puccini house/museum. If you have young people with you, visit the Carnivale Museum on the outskirts where they house the floats and workshops for the famous and gigantic Carnivale parade.

Another option is Montecatini Terme on the train line between Lucca & Florence. It has some beautiful spa architecture & gardens.

Hiredman, thanks for the Lucca Primer, we will be there in the spring, and your info is very valuable. I'm printing it out and bookmarking it now. Thanks again for taking the time to share, and helping a fellow SanDiego resident.

What would be your top picks from this list? Or please let me know if my groupings don’t make sense or places to leave or add you recommend. Thank you!

1. Pietresanta 40 minutes
2. San Gimignano - 1.5 hours, Volterra - 1.5 hours (40 minutes between San Gimignano and Volterra) Monteriggioni - 1.5 hours(30 from San Gimignano)
3. Chianti 1.5 hours - Greve, Radda, panzano
4. Viareggio - 40 minutes
5. Garfagnana 45 minutes Barca

Options 1 and 2, definitely not Viareggio

Should we consider a day trip to Cinque Terre or Portofino?

You need a car for this one.
https://castellitoscani.com/en/lucchio-castle/

Lucchio is a “hanging village” as it’s literally on the edge of cliffs and a large rocky area.
We discovered it looking at a map over lunch in Barga.
It was abandoned like so many other villages, but slowly being reclaimed by descendants of some of the original home owners.
We went there in 2012, so I don’t know how much more has been rebuilt since then.

my two cents: Day trip to Greve which is one of my favorite small towns to visit and Radda is just adorable...If a beach day is to your liking, definitely Viareggio! Spent many days there when I was staying in both Firenze as well as when in Pistoia last year...a great "day trip". Lovely sand (not rocks like some beach towns) and reasonable price for the bed/umbrella for the day. Highly recommend the beach club Irene...has a wonderful restaurant as well. pretty much a straight walk from train station to the beach.

Thank you S J and June! I’ve added both to my priority list:)

For seaside towns, I was also given the suggestions of Portovenere and/or Lerici as less crowded options than Cinque Terre. One of my kids hates the feeling of sand, so actually prefers a stone/pebble access than sandy beaches. Is anyone familiar with either of these?

PV is barely less touristy than CT since the ferry that stops in the CT towns stops in PV as well. PV proper has a waterfront promenade with tiny, sandy man made cove in the marina. I had the impression it was there mostly for kids to play on.
You can see it here: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.0518401,9.8351785,3a,75y,162.87h,82.63t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNn0K7eiButey2FlonrteyA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D7.3700000000000045%26panoid%3DNn0K7eiButey2FlonrteyA%26yaw%3D162.86809853174879!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

The public, more local beach is further down - Spiaggia Libera delle Terrazze - and while I haven't walked on the beach it seems more like the slightly pebbled Italian beaches you'd expect. There is also a beach resort with rentable umbrellas etc between these two places. There is a beach front road so this is easily "walkable" on Google maps.

Lerici has a marina with rocky breakwaters and a beachfront promenade and the official beach - Lido di Lerici - is the again the rentable umbrellas kind of place. But the entire beachfront from Lerici to San Terenzo is a walkway that passes a whole series of free and rentable beaches. If you're interested in distractions for the kids Lerici also has a castle on top of the hill - outside is walkable or small fee to tour the "art gallery" restored inside as well. Tellaro is a tiny CT like town on the point south of Lerici and can be reached by bus.

Both towns are a bus or taxi ride from La Spezia where the train station is. The taxi ride to Porto Venere was a fixed super expensive price when I was there. I believe there is a bus to San Terenzo and Lerici directly from near the train station. Porto Venere is either two buses or a pleasant walk through the mostly pedestrian shopping section of La Spezia to bus stop that connects to PV. There is really only one street into and out of PV so the bus that leads to down town will loop around to the other beaches I mentioned because there is no other option.

Having stayed in PV for several days my general impression is that my photos will make you want to go there immediately but the actual experience was disappointingly touristy. If I was going to go back I would look at the south side of bay instead. Both places are touristy - they are summer beachfront towns in Italy - but Lerici is more "Italians at the beach for the summer season" vibe while PV has masses of groups wearing tour badges and headphones going to or coming from CT vibes.

My $.02,
=Tod

Thank you, Tod! You’re a wealth of knowledge for all things in and around Lucca. Definitely leaning toward Lerici.

Chaivari is also a nice seaside town. the public beach is rocks if you don't want the sand....it is also protected by a seawall to provide a calm area away from waves. there is a nice promenade with cafes and benches etc. which is were I spent lots of time with a coffee or a spritz...I prefer sand to rocks. ;) Might not be within your range of travel. Even having stayed in Chiavari for a month, I still prefer Viareggio when I think of a real beach day....

Also a thumbs up to Pistoia for a visit...lived there a couple of times...so quiet and not crowded compared to Lucca and Florence. It gets pretty lively on market days...fun!

Thanks, June!