Tuscany Recce
by Alistair M / Edited my Paul E
Alistair Moore, Phil Duck, Nigel Burnand, Chris Heath and Mike Duckett went on the recce.
We spent four days in Lucca – 1.5 days driving routes; 2 days cycling and 0.5 days exploring bike hire, hotels and restaurants.
Hotels
Best Western
Staff speak good English. Large clean rooms. Buffet Breakfast – all fine (coffee not good and take a mug for coffee in your room as cups are tiny). About 35-40 minutes’ walk from Lucca town, but list of local restaurants below. Does have Lime Bikes you can hire to ride into Lucca town. Taxis were expensive, but hire cars seem cheap – so may be an idea if you want to visit Pisa (30 mins) or Florence (60 mins). Both could be reached by public transport – but we did not try this. Maybe wet day ideas?
Did not eat dinner but example menu (which did not seem to change). Bar in hotel for drinks in evening (but was closed during the day). Hotel restaurant did not offer lunch.
Alistair Moore, Phil Duck, Nigel Burnand, Chris Heath and Mike Duckett went on the recce.
We spent four days in Lucca – 1.5 days driving routes; 2 days cycling and 0.5 days exploring bike hire, hotels and restaurants.
Hotels
Best Western
Staff speak good English. Large clean rooms. Buffet Breakfast – all fine (coffee not good and take a mug for coffee in your room as cups are tiny). About 35-40 minutes’ walk from Lucca town, but list of local restaurants below. Does have Lime Bikes you can hire to ride into Lucca town. Taxis were expensive, but hire cars seem cheap – so may be an idea if you want to visit Pisa (30 mins) or Florence (60 mins). Both could be reached by public transport – but we did not try this. Maybe wet day ideas?
Did not eat dinner but example menu (which did not seem to change). Bar in hotel for drinks in evening (but was closed during the day). Hotel restaurant did not offer lunch.
Bike storage room secure and fine for our use.
Hotel Stipino
– is about 10 minutes’ walk from Best Western – on way into Lucca town (which is 25-30 minutes’ walk from hotel).
Staff spoke a little English. Breakfast is at a bar / restaurant 1 minutes’ walk from hotel – they give you vouchers. No dinner option but again lots of restaurants nearby and in Lucca town.
Bike storage room takes 5 bikes, so others will be stored in your hotel rooms (they are happy with this). Maybe use the bike storage room for bike boxes and all keep bikes in rooms.
The hotel fronts a road, so maybe ask for a room that isn’t road facing.
Hotel San Bernadino (a new third option)
Hotel is used to cycling groups and very welcoming – have storage room – breakfast on site and can do evening meals if booked. Very Near Stipino (about 200 yards away).
Note about Hotels
Please do your homework on reviews / location etc as you would do with any other holiday. There are lots of hotels in Lucca – so these aren’t recommendation – they are just some I have picked out. Rides can start from one of the gates into the walled town or Best Western – so you can stay anywhere. I know some have already booked Airbnb – this may be a good option.
Transfer from Airport (Pisa) to Lucca
We had two hire cars, which were really cheap and there is a train service which might be an option. More work needed on this to see what is the best solution – maybe a coach that moves most of us?
Bike Hire
Between the five of us we tried out two bike hire options:
Ciclismoplus
Hired various levels of Scott Addict bikes – the hiring process was straight forward – they charge for Garmin mounts, pedals etc – so maybe think about taking your own. Bikes were well maintained. Note – they were very focussed on the condition of the hire bikes – so went over your bike noting scratches / damage etc (like car hire). We were careful with the bikes – so no issues on return but discussed what charges might apply if you dropped the bike etc – the bikes did have protective film on the frames – so if just this getting damaged there would be no charge but if frame scratched then perhaps €100-200. Sell bikes at the end of two seasons.
This company will provide us with a guide to ride Strade Bianchi for a day – you can use their road bikes for this – you don’t need a gravel bike. More to follow on this.
Chrono bike hire
Three people on the recce hired from here. Lovely Pinarello bikes (new every season) and they sell them off in October!!!!! – in good condition, although Nigel had an issue with pedals. This was a little bit of a challenge to resolve as early season laid back approach meant shop did not open on time. Communication by phone was also a bit difficult. (note we did not test Ciclismoplus on communication as we had no issues with their bikes).
There are also a number of other bike hire options.
Restaurants
The Best Western shared a list of restaurants the staff feel are the best – both local to the hotel and in Lucca walled town.
We ate at Pizzeria Vesuvio (about 5 minutes’ walk from Best Western) – 5 pizzas, big plate of chips (which were fantastic), few beers and some wine – bill was E110. Was busy with locals – so might need booking.
We also tried Mixi Gastro Pub – which did nice burgers and ribs – was very nice – service was fantastic with friendly staff. Nothing like a pub – just a great restaurant.
Also Gli Orti di Via Elisa (reception at BW said this was the best place to eat pasta in Lucca) – we didn’t have pasta - the food was mixed – some enjoyed, some did not. Bit more money – and service was poor.
Wine Tasting
Lovely setting – on side of hill overlooking vines - about 20 minutes’ drive from Lucca. Need to think about how we all get there – if there is interest in this. We tried meat and cheese boards with great bread and olive oil (made on site) and tasted five of their wines. Few of us bought olive oil to take home. They can ship wine to UK for you (just saying).
Routes
There are lots of possible routes – into the hills (North and East out of Lucca) or flatter (South and West out of Lucca). We are building a route library on Ride with GPS.
We spent about a day and a half driving routes to gauge road conditions and how viable routes were for the slower speed groups. It is possibly not great for ETs and slower riders who don’t like hills.
There are flatter routes – but these tended to include some busier sections of road, similar to the Henley and Bourne End roads around Marlow. If you have concerns about this please speak with me – we can plan routes, but also want to be open about our sense of the location following the recce.
The two routes we rode are attached below. Both great days out!
Staffoli - 77km / 701m
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/54192256
First part of this was on super smooth tarmac.
Lucca Hills – 47km / 801m
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45921544
We will try to include a good route for riding to Pisa and back and also a route that visits some of the amazing country villas in the area (some of which have very ornate gardens) – see Villa Reale and Villa Torrigiani.
The two challenges we found were:
· Poor road conditions – we found this on very minor roads – needed care when descending.
· Traffic on the equivalent of A roads – so our routes are planned to try to minimise these.
There are some pot hole free cycle lanes to get out of Lucca which we used, and these are good but shared by pedestrians.
Conclusion
It’s new location and untested by us for a larger group trip (unlike Mallorca or Denia).
Lucca walled town, I think, delivers on interest and architecture and I’m looking forward to seeing Pisa and maybe Florence if rain stops play or for a day not cycling. I will explore whether we can do a half day tour of Lucca with a guide if there is interest.
The two rides we did into the hills were great days out – scenery isn’t really the rolling hills with stunning villas with evergreen Cyprus trees – it’s villages, river valleys with agricultural fields and woods.
Coffee stops / lunch opportunities were a bit limited in the hills but almost every village has a café so I think it will be ok. One lunch stop was at a village shop where they made us sandwiches slicing a huge ham or slabs of local cheese between a big chunks of focaccia.
I’m also excited to try some Strade Bianchi………..and some more pizza from Vessuvio
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Please speak with those on the recce – who gave of their time and paid in full for the trip themselves. A huge thank you to them for helping hopefully to make this trip a success!