Driving route advice request - Milan Malpensa to Montecatini Terme

We travel these roads often as we stay near La Spezia. The coastal A12 autostrada from Genoa to the La Spezia area is not for sightseeing. It has 54 tunnels, a good deal of truck traffic, and is a bit narrower than the more modern roads. The A26 and A7 coming from the Alessandria area to Genoa are quite curvy and mountainous and the Genoa metro area always has a lot of traffic and interchanges like spaghetti.

However, the A15 / E33 from Parma to the A12 near La Spezia is quite scenic as it crosses the Apuan Alps over the Cisa pass, and it's a fairly easy drive. The town of Pontremoli would make for a nice half-way rest stop and its historic center is pretty, accessed by 14th century 'schiena d'asino' bridges (back of the donkey). The A12 from the La Spezia area south is also scenic as it parallels the beautiful mountains bordering the coastal plain around Carrara (that's not snow, it's marble!).

I've driven all those routes over the years.
If you want to take the coastal route, I would take:
A4 west to Novara-Torino,
then after Novara the A26 South to Alessandria-Genoa
then once you start seeing the sea, get ready to switch to the A12 toward Genova-Livorno.
Finally near Viareggio, get ready to follow directions to Lucca - Firenze on the A11. Montecatini is between Lucca and Firenze (Florence).

The route above is a bit longer but avoids the Tangenziale di Milano (Milan beltway) which is often congested, especially during peak hours. The A26 is also less congested with trucks than the A7 or the A1.
There will be trucks along the A12, especially near Genoa, but it's not any worse than the A1 or the A7.
The views from the freeway are limited as the autostrada A12 is full of tunnels and viaducts very high in altitude. However it will give you a chance to stop for a quick visit on some coastal towns if you like and have the time to stop a bit for a slight detour (like Portofino or Deiva or Levanto or even Monterosso)

Many thanks to you both. I don't want to complicate my very first drive from point to point too much so it sounds like I should stick with the route they recommend. I look forward to seeing those marble mountains. I'm used to small hills here in Vermont (4000 ft) so it will be very cool seeing real mountains!

I'm not in a rush to get to the hotel but I also don't want to be driving all day, but if I can enjoy a good meal and see some good things along the way that is a big win!

Cheers!

I don't know what I was worried about, driving in Italy is a BLAST!! Put on about 1500km on the little Fiat 500 we rented, I would never do Italy any other way. I think all the worry about driving is way overstated, it's just like driving anywhere but with more tunnels and rotaries! I even had to drive into Florence when the trains were on strike, no issues getting to the station parking lot at all.