How to Visit Pisa and Lucca as Day Trip from Florence

The city of Pisa is located one hour train ride from Florence and its major attraction is its famous Leaning Tower. The tower is very popular with visitors, where many take a day from their stay in Florence to explore the site.

If like us, you are the type of traveler that does not liger around, you can spend one hour in Pisa and then enjoy the rest of your afternoon discovering the charming town of Lucca before returning to Florence.

How to Travel to Pisa

The best way to get to Pisa - Pisa Centrale Station - is to catch a regional train from Florence’s main railway station, Santa Maria Novella. You can buy your tickets on self-service machines near the train platform.

Since we also wanted to go to Lucca, we purchased our tickets in advance on the same machine. Your tickets times will be open, so keep an eye on your train schedule to manage your time and remember: validate them before boarding.

From the station, you will need to walk twenty minutes through the city to reach Piazza dei Miracoli. This green and extensive piazza is where you will find the Leaning Tower of Pisa as well as the Cathedral of Pisa, baptistery, the burial grounds of the Camposanto Monumentale and a couple of other museums.

How to Travel to Lucca

With the popularity of the Tower and the long lines that that dominate the area, it would be difficult to visit both Lucca and Pisa if you decide to visit all the monuments in the piazza. Depending on what your interests are and your patience for crowds, per my experience, you will have to cut your time short in Pisa if you want to visit Lucca with more ease.

On the back of Piazza dei Miracoli is the station that will take you to Lucca. Pisa San Rossore Station seems almost out of place but regional trains arrive roughly every half an hour and the journey takes around twenty minutes to the quaint town.

In Lucca, you will enter through an extremely large and intact defensive wall where a beautiful medieval city sits inside. Grab a map and explore its maze of cobbled streets, its numerous churches and visit the town’s piazzas, especially the oval shaped Piazza dell' Anfiteatro, a site of a former Roman amphitheater.