MacsTravel Blog

Lucca feels like a bit of an oasis after the overtly touristy vibe of visiting Pisa. Not to say that there aren’t tourists here (after all, we were in Lucca for four nights!) but it just seems to have a more relaxed and settled feel than we experienced in Pisa.

Lucca is best known for its intact Renaissance wall which fully encircles the old city, one of the only remaining examples left in Europe. 10,000 people live within the walls; however, while there are many visitors and some spaces have clearly been given over to the tourist trade, it still feels like an authentic and vibrant community.

We rented a lovely renovated two bedroom apartment in the quiet residential area of San Francesco, less than a 20 minute walk to any single area in the old city. It was a perfect home base for our time here.

We started out our first full day here with a walking tour of Lucca led by the knowledgeable and conscientious Sara. She took us along parts of the wall and through the main sites of the town sharing historical and cultural details which really helped us get a sense of the place. It helped that there were regular stops for samples of local food to snack on.

What had been scheduled as a 2.5 hour tour took almost 3.5 hours, but we left Sara with a real sense of what we wanted to see over our time here.

Some Lucca highlights!

The Wall

The Renaissance walls of Lucca surround the old city and have a circumference of over 4 km. They are impressively wide and solid and, thanks to the decision by Napoleon’s sister Elisa to convert the walls to a park during her reign over Lucca, they are lined with trees and paths. The outside of the walls feature large grassy common areas as well, which often play host to public events like Lucca’s massive summer music festival.

We learned that the start of the Giro sprint that was held here and in Pisa on May 20th had riders race from the centre of Lucca up onto the wall where they did a lap before descending on the other side and racing north to Pisa, a route that took the fastest riders just over 30 minutes. It must have been a scene here: we know it was in Pisa!

The Towers

Like many towns in Italy, Lucca is full of towers.

Its most iconic is the Torre Guinigi, which is particularly distinctive for its tree topped roof. The story goes that during a spate of tower construction competition by the wealthiest families, each trying to trump top the other with the tallest tower, the ruler of Lucca decreed that no tower could exceed a certain height. So the Guinigi family got the brilliant idea to plant trees in brick lined planters atop the tower to ensure that their tower topped all the others.

There is an interesting collection of contemporary sculpture at the base of the tower to explore before entering.

You can climb the Torre Guinigi and so we did!

It’s a much easier proposition than climbing Pisa’s tower, and much less crowded. The local tourism association certainly plays up the relative verticality of the Torre Guinigi as compared to the competition in Pisa!

The views from the top are incredible.

The Churches

Like many places in Italy, Lucca is stuffed with beautiful churches. Most occupy a piazza of the same name.

The Opera

Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini and hosts not only a renowned and ancient school of music but a thriving opera festival.

There are also regular performances of highlights from Puccini’s repertoire as well as other famous contributors to Italian music that you can attend. We attended a performance of Italian Opera highlights featuring a talented accompanist and two impressive Sopranos.

These concerts are roughly one hour and take place in the Church of San Giovanni. The acoustics and atmosphere are both incredible.

The Piazzas

It’s wonderful to wander the twists and turns of Lucca’s medieval streets, which feature medieval and renaissance buildings with the characteristic muted orange, earth and yellow Tuscan tones.

At this time of year the scent of jasmine emerges as you pass by enclosed gardens, or a cluster of the plant hugging a wall.

Then, without warning you spill into a piazza which usually feature some combination of church, fountain, statue, public art installation or small cluster of trees, alongside a wide selection of shaded restaurant patios.

The public art is pervasive, particularly the 14 marble sculptures by Colombian sculptor Gustavo Vélez that are scattered throughout the old city.

We had a fabulous meal after the opera at Soto Soto in Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, a piazza which is named after ( and takes the oval shape of) the second century Roman amphitheater which once stood here. It’s a visible reminder that Lucca was originally a Roman city dating from the 7th century BC.

The quality of food at Soto Soto were definitely a cut above most of the other places in the piazza, and their staff were terrific, but any of the patios provide a great place to people watch.

The hills

Lucca is partially surrounded by hills, which take on the lovely blue-green glow you associate with Tuscany.

On our second full day here we decided to take a short drive out of town and up into the hills to check out the Tenuta Adamo winery. It was cloudy and light showers were in the forecast, but we decided to set off.

The route to the winery involved 9 km of straightforward driving followed by a treacherous 300 metre climb over a very narrow and sketchy iron bridge and them up a steep and twisty single lane road into the hills. Fortunately The Cinque Terre had prepared us for these circumstances and we arrived safely and settled in for an informative two hours. The views were lovely, until the torrential rains emerged, which pushed us closer and closer to the wall of the large terrace, and severely tested the warranty on the awning which covered us.

We tasted 5 wines (one rosé, one white and three reds) which were all interesting, and we enjoyed the commentary of Virginia, the young winemaker assigned to our table. We learned a lot about both the process of making these Lucca-centric wines and about becoming a winemaker in Italy. It’s a good choice for an afternoon outing if you are in Lucca. We did find out too late that you can get a shuttle from Lucca, which would have meant a lot less wine poured from my glass into Robin’s over the course of the tasting!

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We had a lovely 4 days in Lucca with a perfect combination of walking, eating and drinking, exploring and enjoying some down time. Our last evening was spent on a patio in our own piazza, enjoying a simple pizza meal while 30 local children, who were celebrating some occasion, alternated between several simultaneous soccer games and a giant game of keep away in the area between the church and the restaurant patio.

We sat with the locals, enjoying our food and dodging the occasion projectile from the soccer game. Balls were cheerfully returned by the restaurant patrons and there wasn’t a cell phone in sight amongst the whole gang of kids. It was fantastic.

We finished with a slow walk through town, ambling along familiar and unfamiliar streets, trusting that we would eventually stumble across a landmark that would lead us back to our square. It was a wonderful way to cap our visit to Lucca, and we’d highly recommend it as a stop on your Italian itinerary!