Question:
I am travelling to Lecchi in Chianti. We are renting a car in Pisa. What is the best route to get from Pisa to Lecchi?
Jo-Anne, Vancouver, BC, Canada
An additional note from Bob ...
I was looking at my maps one more time and wanted to add a suggestion about getting from Pisa to Lucca. There is a lovely smaller two-lane highway - superstradale - the SS12 - that is well worth the effort. It's also easy to find and get to from the airport.
Click here for Google directions
From the airport, head west to the SS1.
The SS1 goes north around the west side of Pisa.
On the north side of the river, turn right / east on to the SS12.
This will take you along the north side of Pisa and into the countryside.
(If you are adventurous you can just drive directly from the airport through Pisa and pick up the SS12 on the other side.)
Follow the SS12
There should be signs to Lucca.
Pay attention because the SS12 splits at San Giuliano Terme. Both routes will get you to Lucca. Take the left fork - straight through San Giuliano. (The right fork is the SS12 road that goes up and over the hill in front of you.)
Again, this is a beautiful backroad lined with large trees and good portions of it wind through the countryside through small hamlets along the edge of the hillside. You'll get a great cross section of this part of the Tuscan landscape: farm fields and small homes with large well-tended gardens.
It's also painless. It should take you all of 10-15 minutes longer than taking the autostrada; and you'll avoid both autostrada traffic and tolls. |
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By Bob Cortright
TalkTuscany.com writer
What is the best route to get from Pisa to Lecchi? Great question. You have two or three choices depending on what you want to
see or do along the way.
The direct, boring route is simply to take the Autostrada to Firenze and
then zip south on the A-1. It's fast, lots of traffic and decidedly
uninteresting. Avoid it unless time is of the essence. Since you've asked
for a suggestion, I'd guess you want something a bit different.
My suggestion is to take the backroads just west of Lucca, through the
countryside through the towns of Certaldo and Poggibonsi - neither of which
is noteworthy but are easy to pick out on the map.
I would particularly recommend a stop in Lucca on the way. It's a short
drive from Pisa, should take half an hour to 45 minutes and a convenient
place to stop - easy to drive in and out of. Lucca is really under-rated.
If you are flying into Pisa and picking up the car at the airport there, you
probably want a close-by destination to stretch your legs and get the feel
of being in Italy. Lucca is the perfect place to do that. It's easy to get
to, park and walk around, and it has excellent restaurants. I recommend Trattoria da Leo. If you have a bit more time, consider renting a bike and
riding atop the wide walls (yes, on top) that circle the city. A guaranteed
good time.
From Lucca (or not) I recommend the backroads towards Certaldo. I've done
this a couple of times and I think I've found the most bucolic route that
will take you through hills and farmland and smaller towns without too much
of the industrial sprawl and truck traffic you'll see plenty of elsewhere.
From Lucca
Head East on the SP23 to SP 61, it crosses under the Autostrada A11 at
Altopascio. Go South on the SP3 and SP15 to Fuccechio. From Fuccechio, you
want to head south to Castelfiortina and the SS 429. You'll have to hunt a
little to make the connections so make sure your navigator has a good map
and is alert.
You cross under the FI-PI-LI (Firenze-Pisa-Livorno) highway. From there you
stay on the SS 429 past Certaldo into Poggibonsi, which just north of
Lecchi. At that point you should have directions about how best to get to
Lecchi.
Just so you know, Poggibonsi tends to be a bit of a vortex. You enter,
circle around a few times and may be spit out in any direction. So be
patient and make sure you know what road numbers or town names you should be
watching for. Again, your house directions in Lecchi should help sort this
out. You're likely to get familiar with Poggibonsi because it is a main road
in and out of the area that you will be in. Poggibonsi also has larger
stores, so is a good place to stock up on groceries.
Another route to consider
Obviously, the route I described above is what I would recommend. However,
there is one other route worth considering that may appeal to you. It
involves driving south out of Pisa - parallel to the coast - and then
heading east over the mountains/hills to Poggibonsi.
The appeal of this route is that it takes you through some lovely winding
and open hills and through or by two hill towns you are likely to want to
visit - Volterra and San Gimignano. However, since these two towns are
relatively close to Lecchi, you may want to save them for a day trip from
there.
If you are interested, here are the details:
The first part of the drive south is along a larger highway and through
occasionally appealing countryside. The climb through and over the hills is
a good warm up for what you will experience in Chianti itself, but may be a
bit much if you are driving at the end of a very long day of travel.
Volterra is the less spoiled of the two hill towns, in large part because it
is a bit more remote. San Gimignano is nice but a bit overrun by tourists
and best visited in the late afternoon when the tourist hordes tend to
retreat back to Florence or whatever their next destinations are. (If you
do go to San Gimignano, I would recommend dinner, on the outdoor terrace if
possible, at La Vecchie Mura. Outstanding food with a view to the east of
the Chianti countryside that you'll be staying in.) |
