Train to/from Lucca, need advice please

The restrictions on the Cinque Terre were a hoax. There are no restrictions.

But yes. Only Regional trains go to Lucca. Use a date in the next 7 days.
You don't book regional trains. They are like bus tickets. Just stamp them at the machine and get on a train.

Just book the Florence-Venice Frecciargento train, if you wish. However be aware that supereconomy and economy fares are non refundable and non changeable, therefore you must make sure of your travel plans, bcause if you miss the specific train you book, you lose your money.

You can buy tickets at the full BASE price anytime, even 1 minute prior to departure (they never sell out seats on those trains, since there are so many).

There is no need to use a date within next seven days to see regional trains schedules. Since December 2015 you can buy regional trains tickets up to 120 days in advance.

In this case the problem is that Rashmi is entering a date after June 12, when the summer timetable change takes place. Regional trains are always the last to be loaded in the system.
Use a date before June 12 to get a good idea of times, number of changes and prices.
As a general rule, if you want to know how to go from Lucca to Venice just enter Lucca as departure station and Venezia S. Lucia as the arrival one. The site will find the better solution.

Note that between Florence and Venice you can travel with Trenitalia or with Italotreno. Italo is a private competing company that runs only high speed trains on major routes. Check their schedules and prices at www.italotreno.it

Thank you so much!

I can't believe the Cinque Terre thing was a hoax, by the way.

Roberto may disagree, but I would not call it an hoax.

They're facing the problem and this is a possible solution (aimed at cruise passengers) that the boss of the Cinque Terre national park put on the table. But he can't take this kind of decisions all by himself, and to tell the truth he didn't want to. Journalists jumped on what he said as if the final decision had been already taken. The director of a National park where people actually live and work is not a dictator.

Even if the restrictions came into effect exactly as proposed, I doubt they could organize and enforce it before next season. Cruise companies would appeal to the nearest Court in a minute as they have already sold tickets.

Rashmi,

It's not necessary to buy advance tickets on Regionale trains. It's just as easy to buy them at the local stations and then validate (time & date stamp) the tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel. DON'T forget to validate or you may face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!

There are numerous trains every day from Florence to Lucca, some direct and some with one change, with travel times as short as 1H:19M. You can see all the solutions on the Trenitalia website. That's a very easy trip! The station in Lucca is outside the walls, so you'll have a short walk (or Taxi ride), depending on where your apartment is located.

Just to clarify the situation in the Cinque Terre, this appears to be a case of someone irresponsibly reporting measures that were being discussed, but not yet decided. Those reading the article assumed these changes were a "done deal" and that's not the case. There are currently NO new "restrictions" in place in the C.T. and it's not likely there will be any significant new measures implemented, at least not this year. There are many different stakeholders, and these discussions will probably go on for quite some time as they will all have to agree on a solution.

The trip from Lucca to Venice is also very easy. Note that your destination station will be Venezia Santa Lucia. The quickest and easiest rail trips on that route appear to be via Firenze S.M. Novella, and then high speed to Venice. One point to note is that you can use either Trenitalia or Italo Treno high speed trains from Florence to Venice. The service is the same, so use whichever one has the best timing and prices. You can save money by purchasing advance tickets on the high speed trains, but keep in mind that the cheapest tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable once purchased and are specific to one train, date and departure time, so choose carefully before hitting the "Buy" button.