Chianti or Lucca

4ngie16

New member
We are planning a 5 week trip from Zurich through Lake Como to Milan, Genoa, Cinque Terra, Bologna, Florence then Gaiole in Chianti through back to Venice and home. We will be travelling mainly by train and hiring a car in Florence/Tuscany. We are considering whether to go down as far as Chianti as we have been given a suggestion of Lucca instead. This means we would come from Cinque Terra to Lucca and then onto Florence and on up to Venice. Any suggestions??
 
depends! both are very nice areas to stay in and explore!

Ciao 4ngie16!

Both Chianti and Lucca are great places to stay at - the main difference is that you don't need a car for Lucca per se (unless you're planning to go around the area up towards the Garfagnana and Apuan Alps) and you instead do definitely need one for Chianti, since this is a region with many small towns to visit.
Lucca is a very charming town with its Renaissance walls around it, there are quite a lot of activities going on every summer (you don't say what period you are planning to visit).
Chianti is very charming and every season brings different colors and landscapes.
So the choice can depend on when you're planning to visit and whether you will have enough days to enjoy renting a car and driving around. Both are definitely very nice areas so the choice has to depend on something else, like practicality ;-) How many days were you planning for either?
 
Thank you for that information....looking forward to seeing as much as we can so after we spend 4 nights in Florence we will hire a car so we can drive around the region for a further 4 nights. Might be able to see Lucca still as we are travelling by train from Cinque Terra to Bologna and then onto Florence. Hope so as I have read about Lucca which seems quite unique with the way the city walls have been preserved. We are doing all this in September so the weather should be quite warm still as I understand it.
 
I am using this thread rather than create a new one to determine which region is best for a base.

We are a party of (3) arriving in either late March 2017 or sometime in April 2017. The plan is to fly into Florence, get a rental car and do either 1-2 nights over in Cinque Terre (parking outside of town). After leaving there we wanted to head to our base for the next 4-5 nights and then back to Florence for a night or 2 before heading out.

I cannot decide whether Chianti or Lucca is the better play. We were looking at an agriturismo around Greve/Figline Valdarno or going with Lucca. I know less is more in Tuscany but if we stay in Lucca the chances of getting to Montelcino/Montepulciano are pretty slim.

I guess what I am getting at is are places like Livorno, Barge, & Lucca every bit as Tuscan as their counterparts to the south?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.
 
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