Lucca? worth stopping if only for one or two nights?

bella,

My preference would be to stay with the tour (especially since you've paid for it). Lucca is certainly worth a visit, but there's far more to see in other locations. You might want to add a night in Orvieto and take a day trip to Civita di Bagnoregio.

Lucca is a very lovely and satisfying place to visit - however, I'm confused by your question, specifically the timing of your trip as a whole, how the tour fits in, and when the visit to Lucca would take place. If you could lay out a timeline of what you have in mind, it would be easier for me and others on the forum to respond.

here is my timeline
Fri May 1 Arrive Roma
Sun May 3- 3night/4 day tour to Tuscany and Cinque Terre- Last stop is Lucca before heading back to Rome
Wed May 6 Either head back to Rome or leave tour and stay in Lucca one night
Thur May 7 Go to Orvieto for 2 nights from Rome if I stay on Tour or from Lucca if I leave tour early
Sat May 9-11 Rome
Tue May 12 back to USA
So basically I am wondering if the extra expense and time of train travel is worth getting off the tour to stay one night in Lucca? or just forgo and stay on tour back to Rome

I agree with Ken's reasoning. If your tour stops in Lucca for half a day, that is enough time to enjoy it. I would add Orvieto after the tour.

I would say spend the night in Lucca, there is lots to do, see and eat that a half-day tour will not accommodate. There are usually free or inexpensive concerts in the evening (Puccini's home town), the wall to walk or bike, a tower to climb, several lovely churches and piazze, and some very good food. If you have two nights for Orvieto, I would do that as well, or one night in Orvieto and add a night to Rome.

I would just spend the time in Lucca with the tour. That is about the amount of time we spent in Lucca and we enjoyed our visit. Orvieto we LOVED. We spent 3 days in Orvieto and would like to return.

Bellastar, all the places you mention are wonderful, so you really can't go wrong. In these spots, I would follow whatever schedule allows you to spend your time seeing and doing and experiencing things and people, rather than waiting for, catching and connecting with trains, or getting to and checking in and out of hotels or inns. It sounds like that would be enjoying your tour visit to Lucca, but saving more time there for another trip, if you love it. I myself loved Orvieto, liked Lucca quite a lot, and of course Rome is Rome!

Lots of good suggestions and very hard to decide however we will probably come back to Rome with the tour and we would get in around 6pm and the drop off is at Termini station so now I am almost tempted to try make the 7:00 train to Orvieto instead of staying overnight in Rome only to leave the next morning for Orvieto but that would mean getting to Orvieto past 8 pm?
Is that t late to use the funicular and get into a hotel? suggestions?

I am a huge fan of Lucca. I stayed 3 nights and one of the days , I took a tour of the villas just outside of Lucca. Stayed inside the wall, walked all over, climbed all the towers, rented a bike and rode around the top of the wall of Lucca. There are also several nice restaurants and in the evenings there are some Puccini concerts (and other music)
I would love to go back to Lucca some day.

I have done day trips to Lucca and it is very nice,but I would go to Orvieto,we stayed at the Duomo Hotel,great location 2 minute walk to the Piazza,the hotel can reccommend restaurants and places of interest..You would probably need a car to go to Civita.
Mike

The funivia runs until about 10pm if not a little later, and the little buses (funivia ticket is valid for the bus) should still be running to take you to Piazza del Duomo. I would get to Orvieto that night if possible, let your hotel know what time you'll be checking in. Email them before you go and they can confirm the funivia/bus schedule.

EDIT: sorry for misinformation about the funivia schedule, there are also taxis that can be arranged to get you to your hotel - your hotel can send one if there are none outside the train station.

I should have checked the Orvieto website before posting, the funicular only runs till 830 pm, so that might cut it to short to arrive in Orvieto?, Maybe we will stay in Rome that night and get an early start to Orvieto the next day, which would be Thursday. I think I read somewhere that Thursday is market day in Orvieto. I will be talking to my daughter this weekend who is studying abroad in Rome to help determine how many days she would like to stay in Rome for our part of her trip so we may make Orvieto either a 1 or 2 night stop, always never enough time to do everything. If we do 2 nights I am tempted to add Civita but it sounds like public transit is not good? sure sounds like an interesting stop, are there other interesting areas around Orvieto to explore?

My post was going to look exactly like Zoe's, so I'll just second her rec's

Stay that night in Rome or Orvieto, six of one, half dozen of the other, I think. Rome, and you would have that final dinner and evening in Rome, and could check out and travel as early as you can get rolling and catch a train to Orvieto. If you decided to take an evening train to Orvieto, the night in Orvieto would likely be somewhat less expensive than in Rome, and you could use the saving for a quick taxi from the Orvieto train station up to the door of your hotel, easier than the alternative with your baggage. You might give up the relaxing evening to travel, but would enjoy strolling in Orvieto late in the evening and early in the morning, especially if that is market day, as you indicate. I stayed in and highly recommend the small Hotel Virgilio right on the Piazza del Duomo, comfortable, friendly and affordable. It is very near the Hotel Duomo and both score highly in reviews. Civita is a nice stop, quite touristy now (when I was there, most of the tourists were Italians), as the last native died recently, and I doubt many people actually live there full time. It is an ancient and scenic small stone hill town, quite like various others, most notable for the fact that to arrive there, everyone must walk over a lengthy pedestrian bridge, so there are no, or virtually no, vehicles In the town. The buses to near the bridge are scheduled mostly for students, so you may find planning a round trip difficult, and there are no buses on Sunday, I believe. An alternative is to hire a car and driver in Orvieto to take you there for a couple of hours, and either accompany you on foot to Civita, and meet you at a certain time. I did that because Sunday was my only possible time to visit. It is certainly more expensive, but also probably less time-consuming, and certainly feasible.

Thank you for the info on Orvieto and hotel I will look into availability, my hotel in Rome is also reasonable. After talking to my daughter today...I might not decide exactly what to do after our tour for a few more weeks, she mentioned Venice again, we were there for 2 nights 3 years ago, and I must say I didnt love it as much as she did...too touristy for me..so I am thinking a plan B would be leave the tour in Lucca and take the train to Florence and fast train to Venice for 2 nights, but I would prefer Orvieto and a more quiet relaxed part of our trip, so I may need to make reservations both places, we were in Orvieto for an afternoon 3 years ago so I may even look into a place not far from Rome that neither of us have been to, any suggestions? for 2 nights before sending the last 3 nights in Rome.