Flying into Pisa- then where? 5 days

[AgapanthusLove]

Dh & I have a chance to fly to Pisa in July. We'll be kid free! We have Monday - Friday & we think we'd like to travel by train as opposed to renting a car.
We've been to Venice & Florence in the last couple of years so maybe not there .
Where would you go ?

Cinque Terre!

It's amazing and really not far from Pisa by train.

Lucca

Lucca and Sienna. Love them🥰.

Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano and Volterra for the alabaster 🥰

Cinque Terre! Or the towns above it closer to Genoa if you’d prefer less busy beaches & villages.

Lucca is absolutely beautiful!

Lucca, Sienna, Montepulciano, Chianti, San Gimignano... and a wine tasting afternoon at a vineyard.
So jealous. You'll have a fabulous time.

As mentioned above already, Lucca, Cinque Terre (although Cinque Terre is best done out of peak season as it gets very very uncomfortably busy), or around Cortona, Montepulciano and Montalcino area.

Lots of great suggestions. I'm not a fan of Pisa, so I'd get in and out again - don't bother staying the night there.

Siena, San Gimignano etc as others have said.
Download the Trenitalia app (you can get it in English) and start planning. I'd probably stay in Siena and go outwards from there.

Great advice! I've been to Pisa once in university, a LOOOOONG time ago now but dh hasn't been. Might go to centre to see the leaning tower & onwards again. We've no desire to stay there but that the airport we fly into.
I've been looking at Cinque Terre online & while it looks stunning I fear it might be too hot & busy at that time so might save it till another off-peak time.

I'm leaning towards Lucca or Siena so need to do lots more googling over the coming days & also try to check out accommodation.

If anyone has any recommendations for hotels I'd be very grateful to have a starting point. Not 5 star high end but equally not hostels...!

I sort of can't believe this is happening as it's very last minute. Our very first holiday together in 1999 was to Tuscany & we fell in love with both it & each other there (soppy!) We've had some good times & some incredibly hard times over the years since but how lucky are we to be able to go back together unexpectedly like this!

We left our bags in left luggage at Pisa station and collected them for our onward journey - it was very straightforward.

Siena. We stayed here last year - was lovely www.villadelsolesiena.com/

Definitely Lucca!

I’d say Lucca - we stayed at the Hotel San Marco. Also easy to get the train to Florence for a day out.

The Lucca Music Festival will be on throughout July so it will be busy (we saw New Order and Elbow in 2019).

Ooh how lovely. I spent a year just outside Lucca when I was young. It’s my favourite place in the world (and I was long haul cabin crew for over 20 yrs, so saw a lot of the world).

I wouldn’t bother much with Pisa, other than the tower if you want to. I can’t say I loved Siena much either. Lucca is lovely- as are lots of smaller towns around it, like Pietra Santa. The Cinque Terre is lovely too. I drove up for a day in July and didn’t find it busy, but it might be more popular nowadays. San Gimignano is lovely too, but if you can stay over. It’s much lovelier at night when the coaches have gone! In that area (Pisa/Lucca direction) you don’t even have to visit anywhere in particular- the hills/mountains/coast is lovely and relaxing anyway
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Bologna is also a great city to visit - especially if you like food.