Lucca Travel Guide: Tuscany's Walled City

Lucca is the most pleasant small city in Tuscany for unhurried visitors. Unlike Siena or San Gimignano, it doesn’t receive the same coach-tour volumes, and the experience of walking its streets is markedly quieter. The city is defined by two things: its intact Renaissance walls (4km circuit, wide enough to walk or cycle on top) and its collection of Romanesque churches, several of which are among the finest in Italy.

The walls

The Renaissance fortification walls (le Mura) were built between 1504 and 1645 and never demolished. They survived because they were never needed for their intended purpose — Lucca was never besieged after they were completed. Today the top of the walls is a 4km tree-lined public promenade, wide enough for cycling, with views over the city rooftops and the Apuan Alps.

The churches

San Michele in Foro — Romanesque church built on the Roman forum. Its façade — five tiers of blind arcading with twisted columns — is the most elaborate in Lucca.

Cattedrale di San Martino — The cathedral contains the Volto Santo (Holy Face), a Byzantine crucifix venerated since the 11th century, and the marble tomb of Ilaria del Carretto by Jacopo della Quercia (1406), one of the finest funerary monuments of the early Renaissance.

Piazza dell’Anfiteatro

An oval piazza built over the footprint of the Roman amphitheatre, whose curved form the surrounding medieval buildings retain exactly. Houses and shops now occupy what were once the amphitheatre’s arched openings.

Practical

Lucca is 30 minutes by train from Pisa and 90 minutes from Florence. It makes an excellent half-day or full-day trip from either. The old city is entirely walkable; bicycles can be rented from several shops near Piazza Santa Maria.