Livorno, Florence, Pisa??

[victory2020]

13 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Want an honest answer?  Having spent a lot of time in Florence (from cruises and just driving trips) we would go to Lucca for a quiet laid back day where we would do little but walk around the compact city, stroll the walls, and enjoy lunch.  We do find Lucca a lot nicer then Pisa (we could care less if we ever see Pisa again).  But both of these towns do not even come close to Florence which is one of the more amazing tourist cities in the world.  Perhaps I could be even more blunt by saying that Florence would make my personal top 20 great cities of the world list while Lucca and Pisa would not be in the top 200!  In fact, Pisa would probably not make our top 1000 list :).

 

Hank

What makes Florence so amazing? Museums, architecture? History? I thought Lucca would be interesting because not as many tourists & maybe a little more of visiting real Italy, but I don't want to miss Florence if it's a must go to city.

[Voelfgar]

We were forced to do Florence on our own because we procrastinated and all the tours starting at the ship were already booked full. And I will say, it is not feasible to do both Pisa and Florence. We got a train leaving livorno at 8:12am getting into florence around 9:30am. We have an hour and 45 minutes to explore the city/shop on our own before a walking tour at 11:15 at the accademia muesuem which will get done around 3:30pm, will have an hour or less  to explore/ shop on our own before the train leaves for livorno at 4:30pm getting back to livorno at 5:48pm. that puts us back on ship a little after 6pm and the ship leaves at 7pm.

 

total cost: 158 Euro less taxi fare to/from port to train station.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Voelfgar
added total cost

[Hlitner]

6 hours ago, victory2020 said:

What makes Florence so amazing? Museums, architecture? History? I thought Lucca would be interesting because not as many tourists & maybe a little more of visiting real Italy, but I don't want to miss Florence if it's a must go to city.

That is a great question and I guess it is like asking what makes Paris amazing.  Yes, Florence has some fantastic museums, great architecture, and certainly lots of history (some of which is on display in its museums).  Lucca certainly has its charms and we have enjoyed walking the walls (some prefer to ride bikes).  IMHO Florence is a "must go to city" for a first time visitor to the region.  On subsequent trips there are plenty of other wonderful places such as San Gimignano, Lucca, Volterra, the Chianti wine region, Colle val d'elsa, etc. etc.  We have spent months in the region and are returning again in October for a few days prior to taking a cruise.  DW and I spent weeks discussing where we wanted to stay, be it renting an apartment in the countryside, within the walls of San Gimignano (we love this town), etc.  We also had to consider the fact that we would have to park our rental car.  After lots of soul searching Florence went back to the top of the list even though we have spend many nights (and days) in that city.   The funny thing is that even though we do like Lucca it was not even a consideration in our plans.   From Florence we can spend time walking around the city, day trip out to lots of favorite spots in the region, and return at the end of the day.  If we get some lousy weather (when we would want to be inside) we can easily return to the Uffizi, Pitti Palace, Academia, Da Vinci Musuem, Galileo Musuem, etc etc.  And then there are the hundreds of restaurants in Florence, the most famous gelato place on earth (not our favorite),  a fun outdoor flea market, etc..  If we were in Lucca we would walk around the town, browse some shops, find a place to eat, etc.   The only way that Lucca competes with Florence is in its unique architecture and fantastic intact walls.  Perhaps the biggest complaint we hear about Florence is there is too much to do and see and it should be saved for a multi-day visit.  The other negative issue with Florence is that it is very popular which means hoards of visitors...all year round.

 

Hank

[John Bull]

7 hours ago, victory2020 said:

What makes Florence so amazing? Museums, architecture? History? I thought Lucca would be interesting because not as many tourists & maybe a little more of visiting real Italy, but I don't want to miss Florence if it's a must go to city.

 

 

Florence is iconic with a number of iconic sights like David and Ponte Vecchio,  it's on many bucket-lists.

If ticking places off, it's the one to go for.

 

Lucca is waaay more laid-back & uncrowded.

But I doubt it makes many bucket-lists.

In fact, whereas most Europeans know of Florence, comparatively few will have even heard of Lucca.

 

Depends very much on your own priorities.

 

JB  

Edited June 18, 2019 by John Bull

[cruisemom42]

8 hours ago, victory2020 said:

What makes Florence so amazing? Museums, architecture? History? I thought Lucca would be interesting because not as many tourists & maybe a little more of visiting real Italy, but I don't want to miss Florence if it's a must go to city.

 

If you love art, Florence is the clear winner.

If you love architecture, Florence is the clear winner.

If you love history, Florence is the clear winner.

If you love good food, arguably Florence is the winner. 

If you love shopping for leather, clothing, gold jewelry, ceramics, Florence is the winner.

 

If you like medieval walls and towers, Lucca is the winner.

If you like fewer crowds, Lucca is the winner (for now, but it gets more crowded each year, it seems....)

 

 

[Cruiseaholic07]

We had this issue as as well and decided on Florence when we go in November. For you cruising experts, we are in port 9 ton 8. We want to see David and also the Ufitizi. My issue is most of the tours leave Florence at 345 or 4, which doesn’t leave much time. Any suggestions on ways to maximize our time?  I was looking at possibly a transfer or the train from Livorno.

[victory2020]

The travel time to Florence was another consideration for me. It's twice the travel time than to Lucca & we're only in port till 7pm. It's not a ship sponsored tour which makes me not want to go too far from the port.

[ollienbertsmum]

On 6/17/2019 at 5:23 PM, victory2020 said:

I am also trying to decide between Florence/Pisa or Lucca/Pisa. I'm leaning more towards Lucca. What is the one thing that would make you want to do Lucca?

 

Since you asked ....the reason I would go to Lucca rather than Florence is that I like to enjoy myself on a cruise rather than being part of wall to wall tourists.   But saying that,  tourists flock to Florence for a reason - it is like an open-air museum.   I found that there was a charm in Lucca that I just loved.     

[George C]

We did 12 day Europe cruise a couple of years ago , highlight if cruise was our tour by papillon. We had 8 from our roll call in new very comfortable Mercedes van, three of us were 6’4” had had plenty of room, driver tour guide was great, we first did Pisa spent about a hour there, then on to Florence, papillon had prebought tickets for half of us who wanted to see David which was amazing, also skipped line there. Had time to shop and have lunch then we were given option for more time in Florence or wine tasting at a organic vineyard, we all wanted the vineyard. Then ten hours later back to ship. Would do same exact trip if we return and I hope we will, cost was about a hundred including museum and 80 without.