Pisa & Lucca: Iconic Tuscany Shore Excursion from Livorno

The purpose of this tour was, for many travellers, the medieval town of Lucca. This shore/transfer/tour included a much anticipated guided walking tour in Lucca, which would help to sort out Lucca's highlights, because its streets are like a labyrinth. Pisa instead, didn't have a guided walking tour which was fine for most of us. The day before the date, this company sent a whatsapp message informing that due to the crowd present for the Lucca Comics & Games (a famous international event of this genre) which was happening on the next day, day of our tour, the company was reducing the time in Lucca (also cancelling the guided walking tour), giving more time in Pisa and having a walking tour there. Now, this festival consistently occurs around the end of October and the first few days of November for many years. How is it possible that this company ignored this big event and chose to send a message informing about the changes on the day before, without giving the opportunity for us to cancel the tour? You see, their cancellation policy is "free" up to 24 hours of the departure time, but they messaged at 14h31 the day before. Furthermore, on the day, there was very bad weather  in the region of the Livorno area, including Lucca and Pisa. Basically it rained all day, ruining any possibility to see Lucca as people just had to hide in cafés to let time pass. The weather worsened at the end of the day, and later there were even alerts on local mobile phones for the Livorno area due to the weather conditions. In summary, this company could have given the opportunity to customers to cancel the tour, due to the change of the walking tours, due of an annual Festival which dates are announced months in advance. This company should have cancelled the tour altogether due to the general bad weather (and with official alerts issued) for the region, for knowing that it would be impossible for the travelers to have a reasonable day. Also to note that when we leave the port shuttle bus in Livorno, in fact the Shore experience representatives are present, but there is an absolute chaos, simply because they don't separate the people that already have bookings to the ones that are asking questions and buying tickets. This could easily be sorted out and ruled . I don't understand why this company puts the customers in this misery of confusion, screams, people trying to jump in front of others, not knowing if they are in the right queue etc.. Our bus, left 15 min late. The guide, Irene, was professional and had a good sense of humour. There was not much that she could do to "animate the crowds" as everybody understood that our day was ruined. Nevertheless she should bring out more knowledge from her History of Art degree, but there must be strict rules just do the tour guide script.

This was a very good way to see two must-see cities during our Livorno port stop. Lucca was charming. Since we were there on a Sunday we also had the opportunity to peruse the outdoor antiques market. The optional walking tour provided by our guide was a good way to see the important sites of the town. During our spare time we opted to walk the park-like top of the city walls - highly recommended. During the Pisa leg of the day we chose the option to climb the leaning tower, which was a challenge, but totally worth it. Plus it also got us entry into the awe inspiring cathedral. This part of the day was on your own. Our guide for the day Kiyko was very charming and provided a good overview of the cities during the bus rides.

Federico (Kiyko) was our guide, he was top notch and made our day! Thank you for having him on your staff! We will be back.

Guide was good and made it fun. Lots of time in Lucca. Needed more time in Pisa though. It was easy to locate the tour location.

Large group on a clean and comfortable bus. Tour gal (sorry I forgot her name) was fun and energetic. When we arrived in Lucca, there was an Italian version of ComaCon. We did not know this, but it was fun seeing the costumes. I think this might be a quieter city when ComaCon is over. Later we headed to Pisa. Thankfully the Leaning Tower and Church are inside a wall. The area is in almost a neighborhood. Inside the walls was a beautifully kept grass area, cafes, and shops. The excursion was worth the money. I had not been to either city- I can say I have now.

Far walk from bus to attraction. Wish we knew about Lucca event earlier so we could have switched our tour to Florence

Pisa is indeed magnificent! No complaints there other than 1.5hrs was a little short. Lucca unfortunately was not as we could not see its magnificence. We were extremely disappointed that the Comic Con festival was occurring in Lucca. The place was overrun with characters dressed up in costumes from video games or comics. It was very difficult to move through such a weird crowd. There were big tents, canopies & screens set up obstructing views of this delightful medieval old town. That is not what we came to Lucca to see! We had no idea this event was occurring & would’ve canceled or not booked it. Viator should have advised us. After waiting years to see Lucca it was frustrating and heartbreaking to see so little of it. The promised 3 hours of free time were wasted due to navigating the crowds to get anywhere. Our plans to bike the walls changed & we could only walk a small portion instead as our time was running out. We had a terrible lunch in a tourist trap restaurant due to the busy crowds. We also got lost at the end due to crowds and were fortunate to barely get out in time to meet our group for the long walk back to the bus. The tour operator Giada was lovely, funny and spoke English well. It was very appreciated that our bus driver Martina dropped our bus load off back at the cruise ship terminal. No issues with the staff we had contact with but Viator had a responsibility to advise us about the Comic Con festival as most tourists don’t go to Lucca for such an event. We got less of Lucca than we expected. So disappointing that Viator did not advise or forewarn us about this.

Through this tour we had a knowledgeable and chill tour guide and a bus driver. We loved Lucca and the food places (2) provided by our guide. It was the best food of our entire trip!!

Federico was an exceptional guide and we loved this excursion to Lucca and Pisa! We had plenty of time in each place. Federico made sure we saw the best sights and had the best experience!

The tour is definitely a highlight of my cruise holiday! Managing Lucca and Pisa from Livorno is challenging for my limited port time (9 hr), and I am so happy to have Federico (Kiyko) as guide and Stefano as driver. Federico guides our trip with his great passion on Tuscany, giving us details on the visit with his nice sense of humour. I enjoy very much his rich information on the bus & subsequent free time to explore the city on my own pace. Federico is very organized and sympathetic to the group of ~50 travelers. I was initially worrying about the possibility of missing my cruise from late tour returns (<1 hr margin), but Federico is competent in making me relaxed. We got the nice surprise of being delivered to the cruise terminal at the end of the trip!