Lucca to Florence

Train

Carol, Absolutely, travel by train. The travel time is about 1.5H, via Regionale trains. Current fare is listed at €5.30 (DON'T forget to validate!). Note that your destination station will be Firenze Santa Maria Novella (often abbreviated as Firenze SMN). Cheers!

Thank you Vern. But not sure what you mean by "validate".

On almost every station platform there is a yellow box/machine which you put your ticket into to be 'validated'. It is stamped with the date and time. If you are found on a train with a ticket which has not been 'validated' you will be fined.

Carol, tp anwer your question, the Regionale class train is the most common class of train in Italy. It's like a bus on train tracks. You buy your ticket, get on and find a seat. If no seat, you can stand. No seat reservations permitted. A second feature for this train is that the ticket is an "open" ticket. There is no train number, departure date or departure time on it. It's good for 60 days for any Regionale train making the run printed on the ticket. Therefore, if you didn't "stamp" your ticket in the little yellow machines in the train stations, you could continue to hop on the same run over the 60 day period in which the ticket is valid. And, since there are often no conductors on the the Regionale train, many people do this. Thus, when you stamp the ticket, it marks it as being used. Also, once you stamp the ticket, it's good for 6 hours. It is assumed that you are stamping it immediately before getting on the train. Note that stamping a ticket is not required for the high-speed trains as the tickets for these classes of trains do have specific train numbers, departure dates, departure times and seat numbers. Finally, the only way that you will get into and out of Lucca on a Trenitalia train is on a Regionale class train. When you travel to and from Florence, you will also most likely be on a Regionale class train. By the way, how are you getting to Lucca in the first place?

Larry; Thank you for all the information on trains. We have been to Italy twice before, but with a tour group. This is our first time on our own. We will be arriving in Lucca (actually at a Villa outside Lucca) after a cruise ending in Genoa. We plan to rent a car for the week we are at the Villa. This way we could travel around. But we don't want to take the car into Florence. We were advised not to do that. The trains seem to be a great way to get around. We plan to spend a few days traveling to Sorrento and Capri before leaving from a day or two in Rome. It's been a lot to plan. Going with a Tour group was soooo much easier.

Carol, Larry provided an excellent description of the way things work with the Regionale trains. As you're planning to rent a car, a few "caveats".... For driving in Italy, each driver must have the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. These are valid for one year, and easily obtained at any AAA office (two Passport-sized photos required, which in some case is offered at the issuing office). Failure to produce an IDP if requested can result in fines on the spot! Have a look at This Website for more detailed information. You may also want to have a look at some of the other posts here concerning the dreaded Zona Traffico Limitato areas that are becoming increasingly prevalent in many Italian towns & cities ( especially Florence!). EACH PASS through one of the automated Cameras will result in a €100+ ticket! A GPS along with a good Map would also be a good idea. Be sure to also give some thought to the question of CDW. If you accept the CDW offered by the rental firm, it will be expensive but will provide "peace of mind". Some "premium" credit cards provide rental vehicle insurance, however I've found this to be somewhat complicated so I just accept that offered by the rental firm. Check the Car Rental section in Europe Through The Back Door for further information. Cheers!

Well I see it slightly differently. The kicker is that you have told us you already have a car. The superstrada between Lucca and Firenze is a good one and much much faster than the train. Why drive from your Villa into Lucca, then wait for a slow train (and they are slow on that line - I have often wondered if it would not probably be faster to go to Pisa and change there for a faster train - dunno) then a a longish ride on the train, when you can go straight from the Villa to Firenze in your own time. You can avoid driving anywhere near the centre with its dreaded ZTLs and park a little out of town and bus in. I do that when driving my personal car there. Or park at P. Michaelangelo and walk down to the town through the beautiful rose garden, assuming you are there May to August. If you hadn't said you had a car the train would have won hands down.

Thank you Nigel. The only reason we weren't planning to drive the rented car to Florence is that people here have warned that the car may be broken intocreating more problems than we are interested in solving. Driving to Pisa is a good idea. In fact, we learned that we could park the car at the airport in Pisa and catch a train from there. I just thought Lucca would be a shorter trip. But, if the trains are faster from Pisa, that could work better. Again, thank you for the information.