Tuscany for Seniors

Tosca424

New member
Hi,
Feels great to have stumbled upon this nice forum with so much useful information.

My parents (70 and 63) will be visiting Tuscany in mid May. They will first be doing a 5-6 day stay in Rome before coming to Florence by train, and then onward to Venice.

In Florence, I had planned 4 nights for them.
1) Is this enough to see most of the important museums and sights?
2) Should they purchase a Firenze card online, or just go to the museum queue's ?
3) Could they do a day trip to Lucca and Pisa and back to Florence on one of the days?
4) Instead, would you recommend staying in Lucca for 2 nights?

I want them to avoid carrying luggage and boarding trains too many times so thought of Florence as the base. Checking in and out of too many hotels can get tiring.

The trip is still open-ended, so we can cut down on a day in Rome and add it to Florence if recommended. They will stay in Venice for 3 nights, which I presume should be enough to see it properly? Please advise.

The idea is an easy, relaxing trip but without missing out on important sights.

Thank you in advance for your help!
 
Ciao Tosca, welcome on the DT Forum!
I am sure you're enjoying your trip preparation, May is a gorgeous month for travelling to Tuscany.
I start with a few proposals/suggestions for you:

In Florence, I had planned 4 nights for them.
1) Is this enough to see most of the important museums and sights?
Florence is a city where you could spend weeks without getting tired of its streets, museums, outskirts...For your first time 4 nights can be a good base, even if I would encourage you to stay a little longer to exploit Florence also as a base for your day tours to Lucca or Pisa or Siena if you are mostly travelling by train and not by private car.

2) Should they purchase a Firenze card online, or just go to the museum queue's ?
In MAY museums are really really crowded. I do suggest you to purchase a FIRENZE CARD, and to enter the most visited museums after 4pm, when most of the large groups of visitors have left the town.
Pls consider that may and September are two months of peack season in town, you may have to wait a little anyway just outside the Uffizi or accademia Gallery, but the short attendance will never be comparable to the long line of the people who are queuing without a reservation or without a Firenze card.

The FIRENZE CARD is a usefull and quite complete card that you can use during your stay in Florence.
FIRENZE CARD OFFICIAL WEBSITE
or
Check our page for useful hints about the FIRENZE CARD

3) Could they do a day trip to Lucca and Pisa and back to Florence on one of the days?
Yes, it is possible.
They can take the train from Florence to Lucca, then from Lucca to Pisa and eventually from Pisa to Florence.
For any exact train schedule please refer to TRENITALIA
(remember to click on PASSES to view the local train schedule from FIRENZE SANTA MARIA NOVELLA to LUCCA or to PISA CENTRALE)

4) Instead, would you recommend staying in Lucca for 2 nights?

I want them to avoid carrying luggage and boarding trains too many times so thought of Florence as the base. Checking in and out of too many hotels can get tiring.

Exactly: Lucca is fabulous, it is really relaxing, but if the priority is avoiuding too many changes I think it could be a good compromize to stay a day longer in Florence and explore Tuscany/Lucca from Florence as a departure city.

If you need any further suggestion feel free to reply!
See you in my hometown in May! Keep us posted, happy Sunday!
Elena
 
Ciao Tosca and welcome to our forum! Glad you're finding the forum useful in your planning.

In addition to what Elena posted, I'd like to add that if you decide the Firenze Card is worth it for your parents, that you DON'T really have to buy it ahead of time since it can easily be bought once in town. But if you prefer to have it already on hand for them, you could buy it before hand.
Also consider if they want to see a precise list of museums and not all of the ones listed in Firenze Card, there is also an alternative, the Amici degli Uffizi card. Just google it and you'll find the site with a list of museums you can visit (not as many but includes the Uffizi and Accademia).

I also would suggest staying in Florence the entire stay - and yes, maybe doing 5 days in Rome, adding one to Florence so that you do have at least 3 full days in Florence and 2 days for say trips - one to Pisa or Lucca (depends how calmly they want to visit each - I'd do just one or the other) and another to Siena.
3 nights in Venice should definitely be enough!

Enjoy the trip planning :)!
 
Top