Tours to Lucca

Take a regional train from Firenze Santa Maria Novella station (Florence main station). Less than 90 minutes and €8.10 later you can be in Lucca. No need to hire a tour. If you have a guidebook you can do it all on your own.
Train timetables here
www.trenitalia.com

Thank You.

What else is nearby and worth seeing?
Also what is the weather like mid October?

Maria

Pistoia, along the same railway, about midway between Florence and Lucca. Although in one day it will be hard to visit both.

I wish I had the crystal ball and predict the weather. October is generally fairly warm (but not hot) during the day and coolish at night, but rain becomes increasingly likely as you approach the end of October. Actually it has been raining a lot in Italy in the past few days.. The best bet is to check the weather forecast just before going. It’s generally fairly accurate one week out.

Thank You so much!
Obviously you can't guarantee weather prediction, but we know more or less the usual weather in our hometowns. We will be there next week. Hoping we won't be hit with lots of water.
I am undecided on weather to take the tour because it is a 1/2 less of travel and we will have a guide. And then it is a heck of a lot more $ and if it ends up raining, it would be a big let down. We have to think that one over.
Grazie,
Maria

I’m not sure the tour would be less travel than the train. The train takes 1h20min from Florence to Lucca (since it makes stops along the way), but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to drive from Florence to Lucca in less than one hour (from my house near the Firenze sud freeway exit to the Lucca freeway exit), on a good day with no traffic on the freeway, and I’m not the exactly the type who drives below the speed limit. Downtown to downtown, considering the traffic in the surface streets will take longer. The only advantage of taking the tour would be having a guide who takes you around and explains things to you, but not the time of travel.

I think you can do Lucca on your own without a guide. It is not one of my favorite Italian cities so I usually opt now for some of the other daytrips from Florence experienced visitors here recommend. No matter what, you'll have an amazing time because it's Italy!

Went to Lucca on a whim today and enjoyed discovering the walled city using an interpretive map that we picked up at the TI in the town. Lucca was very easy to navigate and we felt no need for a guide. Weather was unpredictable (cloudy/rainy around lunch time, but lovely later in the day.) We packed a small umbrella, but it wasn’t really necessary. Most cafes had patio umbrellas, so most people dined outside regardless of the raindrops. We found it an enjoyable and easy day trip, rain or shine.

We were just in Lucca a took a tour with Gabriele via RS recommended turislucca and really enjoyed it.
https://www.turislucca.com/

They offer day trips and excursion style tours but Florence to Lucca is easy on the train so I would just go by train and then arrange a couple hour walking or food tour or whatever fits your style if you want one.

Other day trips from Florence are Bologna - 40 minutes in the fast train 1.5 hours on the slow one - definitely think about a food tour there since it IS the food capital of Italy.
Siena is THE obvious day trip from Florence but also maybe Arezzo if you've done Siena.

Just went to Verona for the first time and it is a beautiful city but at 1.5 hours on the fast train it is probably at the edge of what most people would think of as "day trip" able.

Have a great trip,
=Tod