My family (with a young toddler) wants to stay in a central location for the week to visit Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucas and maybe head south to see one of the coatsal towns like Livorno.
In your opinion, what is the most convenient and interesting home base for this?
Side note, we will be taking the train from Florence (where we have booked a whole month before).
Lucca is pretty darn good, if you can find a place for a car. All the places you mentioned are an easy drive from Lucca. You can even go to Portovenere and the take the boat to 5 Terre. you can even Piombino or Monte Argentrio or Porto Ercole along the Mediterranean Coast from Lucca.
Is lucca a nice central spot for catching public transportation? We haven't planned on getting a car.
Yes, on the train line. But, you will have to change trains in some places. To hit some of your places a car might be better.
