Lucca

Depends on who “we” is, what time of year and where else you’d want to visit

Milan is too far as a day trip 3-3.5 hours

If you are planning to visit Tuscan hilltowns Lucca is really a bit too far north and west
Lucca does not have the best transportation links either

A month is a long time, maybe split your time between 2 locations.
Choose your day trips, then choose your bases

Lucca's a great choice, IMO. It gives you more stuff to keep your interest and, depending upon the season, there's wine festivals, comic/toy fairs, etc. Good choice of restaurants, easy tourist experience, music & arts.

I'll mention the only "downsides" (that's maybe not even the right way to put it)
Lucca doesn't have the greatest rail connections but it's not terrible. You can always rent a car for a few days or just deal with connections.
The historic center where you should be staying, is really a tourist destination. So you'll see busloads of day trippers and interact with a lot of tourists. The vibe chills at night, but it's still really a tourist area. Don't get me wrong; real Italian families live inside the walls, and the further away from Piazza S. Michele or Piazza dell' Anfitheatro, the more locals you'll interact with. And there's a whole work-a-day Italian city wrapped around the Centro storico

If you are into long range day tripping, Florence is the only choice, as it is linked by fast trains (250 km/h) to a lot of places. You could daytrip to Milan, Bologna, Venezia, Rome and even Naples is not impossible. Maybe it does not make sense to stay six hours in Venice but technically is possible.

Lucca simply has not such links, to get in any place you have to go to Florence first and you are already 1.30 hours travelling in the morning and 1.30 in the evening. Lucca is a nice place to be, but do not plan travelling very far from there.

Years ago I spent a week in Lucca. It was lovely. Especially in the mornings and evenings. I did 2 day trips to Florence and a day trip to Cinque Terre. Unless you have a "plan" on how to spend your days, 1 month may be a bit too long.

For me, Milan would not be a day trip. Much too long of travel time. Fly in or out of Milan and spend a few days in Milan.

I would limit day trips to maximum 2½ hours travel time in each direction. And only a very few trips that long. Anything further, I would overnight.

Here's a post from last year discussing day trips.

Day trips from Lucca

Unfortunately, April is not opera season in Lucca. However, there are usually concerts in the evenings.

Hello workboats11, and welcome to the forum,

My answer is it depends on what experience you are looking for. If you are looking to live in an Italian town and sample the life with occasional day trips then Lucca is decent choice. If you are looking for a small quaint town that is also a transportation hub then Lucca is not the best choice and I think you will struggle to find a single solution.

I stayed in Lucca for a month in 2024 and if you want to be in town and experience it then it offers what I call "curated" Italian living. Because rents are higher in the center and that's where the tourists are Lucca has more than its share of good restaurants and shops without feeling like Avignon - completely given over to shopping and visitor lounging. It still has ancient bakeries and mom and pop vegetable stands and local stores even if the trendiness of the town is threatening those things a bit. Lucca has sites and activities and I was actually shocked at how quickly the month went by but if you're trying to tour Italy from there I don't think it will interest you enough.

But if you want a transportation hub you really need a place with access to the fast train and Florence is an hour (or more) away so getting there to then continue on to somewhere else becomes a too long a day. Bologna is only 30 minutes from Florence but probably nearly 2 hours from Lucca. If you want something along these lines you could look at Fiesole - a tiny town but within bus distance of Florence and the fast train. Or maybe Ferrara which is on the fast line between Bologna and Venice putting big cities Florence, Bologna, Venice, Padua, Verona within reach as well as smaller places like Parma, Modena as well. Prato and Pistoia are both closer to Florence (on the same line as Lucca) and while I don't think either has the charm of Lucca that might also mean lower prices. (Many people who settle in Lucca also considered Pistoia.)

So there are options but the different regions of Italy are so distinct - Florence, Lucca and Pisa are Tuscany so the food and culture is different than Bologna and Parma in Emilia Romagna and Verona, Padua and Venice that in the Veneto. So where you look should be dictated by what it is you want to see and do.

You might consider breaking the time up - maybe 2 separate 2 week stays as different hubs for day trips and experiences or 3 longer stays along the way. In April I would generally suggest south to north to chase the warming weather.

Hope that helps, if you're really considering Lucca I can more details of my stay with you.

Have a great trip!
=Tod