Where to stay in Pisa & Lucca

More than the tower, and Lucca next door is the reason to stay: a walled town with a tree-lined rampart you can cycle around. A calm base for western Tuscany.

Lucca is the base and Pisa the day out, half an hour apart by regional train. Inside Lucca's walls, Piazza San Michele, Via Fillungo and the Anfiteatro are minutes apart on the flat; a room outside the walls by the station costs only a walk through a gate. Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli is a long walk from Pisa Centrale, so get off at San Rossore.

It suits cyclists, families and anyone who wants a walled town without a hill: Lucca's rampart is just over four kilometres and level. It suits drivers less: the centro storico is permit-only ZTL, a hotel can white-list a plate for luggage only, and the car goes back to the car parks along the walls. The tower climb is a timed slot and children under eight are not allowed up. The comics festival around 1 November takes every bed in Lucca.

Two nights covers both; a third buys Viareggio's beach by train. Florence is an hour by regionale from Pisa, half again from Lucca, so this is the natural last stop before a Pisa flight. Do the tower first thing, before the coaches.

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