Trying to finalize our trip Sept 7 to 21

I was just in Stresa for a daytrip, plan to go back for several nights. You might take a night from Lucca and add it to Stresa. Lots to see on Lago Maggiore.

Take from Lucca and add to Montepulciano . It is away from the areas you are visiting and Tuscany needs more time. You will need a car in most of Tuscany as it is very rural.
Lucca is nice but the surrounding area not nearly as nice as Montepulciano. Stresa is great too but doesn't need as much time. I have spent a lot if time in all of your proposed locations and hope you give more time to Montepulciano.

While in Pavia I hope you go and see the Certosa Di Pavia. It is unesco site and quite spectacular.
Agree with people mentionning adding more nights to the souther part of Tuscany.
Are you planning anything in Florence? Hope so as it's an amazing art city
For my personal tastes, 2 nights in Stresa was enough as the main reason I was going there was for the borromées islands.
Maybe the fact that we have tons of lakes in Canada in Quebec, I wasn't as much overwhelmed by that area(but don't get me wrong it's gorgeous).
The "wow I've never seen this before" factor was definitly more present in Tuscany, CT, etc
I spent 1/2 day in Lucca and the same in Pisa. Don't feel I missed much though taking it slowly, I guess you could do a day each, but that's it.
From there, you are far from the rest of tuscany for day trips, aside from Florence(that I wouldn't do from Lucca. I would spend a few nights there)
Doing Tuscany by train might be a bit difficult for the smaller towns. I'll let bus and train specialists talk about it as I always rent a car
Voilà! :-)
Ciao

Thank You for all the input. We are changing it up a bit as suggested . We will not have a car and are trying to figure out the best way to get to Montepulciano from Lucca.

We are wondering also about the advisability of renting a car with driver from Montpulciano to the other towns that we wanted to visit from there
thanks
marge and connie