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Viale Bicchierai 113, Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, 51016, Italy
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Stayed for two nights in the Royal Palace hotel. Nice shops and had a good night out having beers and browsing through shops. Do not miss the 'Older City' Montecatini Alto. You can reach this city in 8 mins with the red Funicular. Nice village with cafes, antique shops, piazzas, and a good panoramic view of Tuscany below. We also had a wine tasting session in one of the restaurants just near the funicular station.
Montecatini Terme is a spa town in Tuscany, Italy, with c. 20,000 inhabitants.
It is able to accommodate every year at least 2,000,000 tourists.
I like this city. It is full of life - locals and tourist - all they living in symbiosis. For us it was only place for spend the night.
Our bus bring us to our hotel evening and in the morning we proceed our trip. But these two evening and night, what we spend in Montecatini, were great.
Elegant, peaceful and relaxing, that's how I describe this place.
Montecatini Alto, about 200 or so meters above Montecatini Terme, is a well-preserved medieval town which may have been settled in pre-Etruscan times by Ligurian tribes. The Etruscans probably had a settlement here, as the Romans did.
Montecatini Alto first appears on a map in 1016 AD, well into the Christian era. It was subject to the usual conflicts between local aristocrats, invading armies, and Ghibellines and Guelphs, ultimately finding itself firmly within the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where it remained until the Duchy was absorbed into the modern state of Italy in 1860.
Montecatini Terme, with its world- famous thermal baths, large parks and gorgeous gardens has been a busy health spa for centuries. High above, connected by a funicular railway that was built in 1897, is Montecatini Alto, a fortified medieval town commanding spectacular views of the Tuscan countryside which is dotted with many villages and towns, and divided by well-tended farms, vineyards and olive orchards.
Whether by the funicalar or by car as we did, you'll be immediately in the old town, where one can enjoy a plethora of ancient buildings, including the remains of a castle, a few palazzos and several churches. The main piazza is capacious, the winding and narrow streets evocative of an age long ago. There are spectacular views of the surrounding country, and a number of establishments such as bars, restaurants and souvenir shops.
This is the main street of Montecatini Terme. There are alot of shops and hotels along the street, but there are also parks and lovely buildings to view as well.
There is certainly an active night life in this town, and all of the outdoor venues looked quite inviting.
There are many structures that were built in the Art Nouveau style.
One of these Terme Tettuccio which is supposed to represent a thermal city immersed in green. This spa was filled with all sorts of visual delights.
This was just one of the charming features that we spotted along our stroll up the Viale Verde.
If you look closely, you'll see that this carousel has two floors.
There is no "touristy" feel around this area, which is what makes this area so relaxing.
Montecatini Terme is a city of health spas. It's also a connection point between Pisa and Venice. It takes about 1 hour to get both of places by train. Every year at least 2.000.000 tourists visit their cute town where you can find so many green parks and healthy waters. There are also plenty of hotels and also special events like tennis courts, riding schools, trapshooting or trekking etc.
You can sit and relax at main square with locals. Old people are very nice with you. And when you start to talk, you easily understand each other anyway, even if you speak different languages :)
Nights are alive here at Montecatini. People walk, talk and eat outside...
One of the big spas of Montecatini is Torretta. (Meanwhile, I heard that the most beautiful one was Tettuccio). It has an entrance fee. Some tourist groups have cards to get in. I think that those cards are given by your travel agency.
Montecatini Gardens
Montecatini Terme fountain
Main square of Montecatini
View of Montecatini Alto
What is Montecatini like to spend 7 nights? How easy is it to travel by public transport to Pisa, Florence, Lucca? Are there other places worth visiting which are easy travelling distance by public transport from Montecatini?
1. Caveat: I stayed in Montecatini Terme some 20 years ago...but I am sure nothing has changed, right? ;-)
2. Montecatini is a spa town. It's a real town, but catered primarily to people going to the spas. For this reason, there are many hotels there, out of proportion to its size.
3. At the same time, it wasn't a real big town, so I didn't see a lot of nightlife. 20 years ago, on Saturday evening, they still had the charming Mediterranean custom of everyone going down to the main square and just walking around, to see and be seen...I wonder if they still do that...
4. There is the train station at the bottom of the hill (leading up to all the spas/hotels). From here, it is a direct shot to Florence (just under an hour), Lucca (maybe 30 minutes), and not difficult to Pisa (you'll probably have to change in Lucca, but the whole trip is just over an hour).
In addition, once you are in Florence (especially) but also Pisa, you will have train access all over the country - by fast train, Rome is only an hour and a half or so from Florence). You may prefer, however, to take the train or bus from Florence to Siena and other sites within Tuscany.
In any case, use www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html for trip planning...
Personally, having no interest in spas, I would stay elsewhere if it were as long as 7 days - I stayed there originally only because all of Florence was sold out. However, unlike many of the tourist towns in Tuscany, it does have good rail access, so it depends on what your goals are.
Bill
Bill is quite right about Montecatini living and dying with the spas. But if you look at your map it is centered quite well for travelling especially south into Tuscany if you are fortunate enough to have a rental car. For Florence, Lucca, Pisa, as described, the train is better. Even a day trip to the Cinque Terra is easily possible although you should check the train schedules carefully to avoid long layovers in places like La Spezia during train transfers.
I am travelling to Pisa for 8 days in September. Which is a nicer/cheaper place to stay, Montecatini or Viareggio?
Montecatini is inland, more subdued, supposed to drink the waters there- very good for the system! Centrally located for east access to sightseeing in surrounding environs, e.g. Florence.
Viareggio is a beach resort- very laid back- fun shopping, beach restaurants and very resorty.
It really depends what you are looking for. Pricewise I couldn't tell you but my guess would be that Viareggio could be done cheaper
Hi,
Not sure about costs. Montecatini Terme is a spa town where you mostly find elderly, elegant spa tourists. Nice shops and hotels, but more a place to relax.
Viareggio is more lively, younger people, beach, famous for the Carneval there. If you want action and nightlife (but also sometimes tourist-rip-off, so take care with restaurants at the beach), then Viareggio is the right choice.
Hope that helps?
Enjoy your trip,
Hurriya
i say montecatini. the city of viareggio isn't that great
Thank you/grazie for your advice
We will be in Montecatini in April and we haven't been told what hotel we will be staying at. However, the hotel may be on the outskirts of the city and our question is what will the approximate cost of taking a taxi into Montecatini be ~~ let's assume we will have to travel ten miles to the city. Many thanks.
First, Montecatini is a town of hotels - because it is a spa town (hot baths), there are hotels all along the road that rises from the train station in the city center up the hill to the baths. So let's hope that the hotel that you are using in one of these, because it's just a walk to the center (of course, the walk back to the hotel is uphill ;-) )
I haven't found the taxi rates yet, but it may not matter, as the rates that we might find would be in town, and a taxi going to a hotel ten miles out of town might well be able to charge double the meter (it's true in other parts of Italy). Let's just hope that in the case of Montecatini, that you aren't ten miles outside of town...which would seem to be unnecessary in this case...
Bill
Sorry, I too was not able to find the Montecatini taxi fare.
Here there are the links of taxi fare in other tuscany city, just to give you an idea.
arezzo
www.taxiarezzo.net/tariffario.htm
pisa
www.cotapi.it/tarif.html
firenze
www.socota.it/tariffeen.html
Ciao.
marco
M T is not a big town - you can't be ten miles outside of it or you'll be on a farm somewhere. Most of the hotels are within 1/2 - 3/4 mile of the center.
Thanks for your input regarding Montecatini ~~
Marco ~~ thank you so much for responding to my question regarding Montecatini.
Thank you so much for replying to my question regarding Montecatini.
Hello
I live in Montecatini and even if you don't have the hotel exactly into the center of the town probably you'll not need a taxi. Anyway if you let me know (when u'll know) the name and the street of the hotel i'll make you know if you need a taxi or not.
Fell free to ask or email me if you want to know something about Montecatini or the about the area around
Take care
Alex
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Q: 5 days in Montecatini Terme with a 2-year-old "Does it make sense? How can I entertain my son in MT?"
A: "It's true that I haven't been in Montecatini Terme for 20+ years, but outside of going to the various spas, I am not sure what else there is to do other than walking up..."
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