Tuscany’s most charming city is the perfect getaway
Enchanting Lucca offers everything we love about Italy, contained within medieval walls and without the crowds. It won’t disappoint, says Tim Jepson
Many people’s favourite Tuscan city (though really it is the size of a large town), Lucca is an almost faultless combination of the usual Italian temptations – art, architecture, food, wine – and the more intangible charms of a world apart, kept safe and unspoiled within medieval walls.
It’s the perfect destination for a short break – Pisa Airport is just 35 minutes away – or as a wellconnected base for trips farther afield. Either way, it’s hard to imagine Lucca disappointing.
It’s enough simply to walk Lucca’s streets to enjoy its easygoing charm, key sights and many medieval nooks and crannies. Make first for Piazza San Michele, site of the Roman forum and home to Chiesa di San Michele, graced with a 12th-century Romanesque facade – all pillars, tiny columns and delicate decoration – that is as beautiful as any in Europe.
Now meander south, either via the airy Piazza Napoleone or the tangle of streets around the church of San Giusto, and make for the Duomo (museocattedralelucca.it), compelling inside and out, from the carving-filled facade to an interior that contains Jacopo della Quercia’s Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (1407-10), one of Tuscany’s renaissance masterpieces.
Then walk north via Piazza Bernardini and Sant’Andrea to Casa Guinigi, former home of one of Lucca’s ruling medieval families and celebrated not only for its 125ft-tall red-brick tower – which you can climb – but for the holm oaks that sprout from its summit, providing the city with one of its most recognisable landmarks.
From the tower it’s a few moments via another fine church, San Pietro, to Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, a wonderfully picturesque oval of medieval houses built over, and incorporating, the ruins of Lucca’s Roman amphitheatre (anfiteatro).
Exit the piazza and you’re on Via Fillungo, Lucca’s elegant main shopping street, and just moments from Basilica di San Frediano, another of the city’s glorious churches.
Lucca’s 16th-century walls were never used in anger, but the bastions are one of its highlights; bordered by a broad swathe of green and topped by trees and a traffic-free promenade that encircles the old town for two and a half miles.
Find time to walk some of the circuit – which offers wonderful views – or better still, do so on two wheels, by renting a bike from either Poli (biciclettepoli.com) or Bizzarri (ciclibizzarri.net), which cost £3.50 hourly or £14 daily.
If you fancy venturing further afield, dozens of villas and gardens sit within just a few miles of Lucca, while Pietrasanta, a small town slightly to the north, is known as the “Little Athens of Italy” thanks to its artistic traditions. Train links make the city a good base for trips to other parts of Tuscany, too, with trains to Florence roughly every hour (1 hr 20 mins; £7.15). Pistoia and Prato, en route, both have fine historic centres worth exploring.
You can also visit the Leaning Tower (and Pisa’s other sights) on your last day if you time your flight well – but be sure to book tickets if you wish to climb it (opapisa.it).