While most visitors to Tuscany are focused on seeing Pisa and Florence, there is a jewel right in their path that shouldn't be missed. Just 15 miles northeast of Pisa and less than 50 miles west of Florence, there is a beautiful, tiny ancient walled city called Lucca, a true Tuscan town. Here, absent the masses of visitors, is a view into authentic Italian life. In the town’s main central piazza, you can see the remnants of the old circular forum walls. 

Aerial view of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy, showing the intact, massive city wall, lined with trees and an extremely delightful footpath where bicycles  and families emerge from mass to stroll to their favorite piazza.

     Lucca’s tree-lined promenades, which offer magnificent views of the city encircle the city.  There are six gates along the circuit of the walls that comprise a city park more than 4 km (3 miles) long filled with avenues of trees planted by Marie Louise Bourbon in the 19th century. The walls of Lucca were never put to the test against an enemy army, though it turned out they made excellent dikes.  The walls saved the city of Lucca in 1812 when a massive flood of the Serchio River inundated the valley.
     Today citizens and visitors to Lucca love to walk, jog, or cycle on the wide and peaceful road which runs along the top of the walls, shaded by towering plane and chestnut trees. From here you can look down into the old town, on their fine buildings in faded splendor and graceful gardens... peeking a bit at the private life of the citizens on their terraces and in their backyards.  Or you can look outwards to the peaceful olive vine-clad purple hills of Tuscany in the distance which surrounds the town.  Beneath your feet, meanwhile, is history. You can leave or enter the old town by passing underneath the walls.

      

           

   If you walk or drive along the walls, you will see six gates that allow access to the city.  The two major gates at opposite ends, are Porta San Jacopo and Porta San Pietro. One gate, Porta Elisa, is named after Napoleon’s sister who once ruled Lucca.  The gate called Porta San Pietro is used for both cars and pedestrians. It is the closest to the train station and also close to Piazza Napoleone, on the inside of the walls. There are no cars allowed in the walled city (unless you live there). 

  The is town located right on a train stop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

     The narrow medieval streets paved in stone lead into piazzas large and small, and beautiful churches greet you as you wander through the streets. There are some fabulous shops, cozy trattorias, bars and restaurants, and art galleries and museums.
     The city is dubbed “La Città delle 100 chiese,” the city of 100 churches, due to the presence of countless churches in Roman, Medieval and Renaissance architectural styles. The city has a number of soaring Medieval and early Renaissance towers. Many of them can be visited and offer postcard views of Lucca’s rooftops, however two stand out: Torre dell’Orologio, the clock tower and Torre Guinigi. The latter is easily recognizable for its rooftop trees and is worth the grueling 45-meter climb to the top

PIAZZA ANFITEATRO

     Piazza Anfiteatro is where the oval-shaped Roman forum once stood. The houses were built during the Middle Ages into the remains of  the floors of the Roman amphitheater.  The amphitheatre itself had been used for centuries as a quarry for raw materials to build the city's churches and palaces. The outline of the stadium was still visible in the 1930s when Duke Ludovico asked local architect Lorenzo Nottolini to rearrange the space and bring out the ancient form better. Nottolini pulled down the few structures that had been built inside the oval, restructured the ground floors of each building, and inserted four tunneled entryways, but he retained the jumbled, medieval look that the differing heights of the tower remains and houses give the place.  The only part of the original fabric of the amphitheatre left today is the arch on the left through which you enter the square.  It is amazing to stand in the middle of the piazza and slowly turn to take in the full circle of buildings.  The forum now only recognizable in that it is a circular area of houses --houses on top of the old Roman forum walls.

    

      Restaurants and small shops circle the piazza with benches occupied by inhabitants passionately discussing issues, a woman completing a crossword puzzle, mothers watching their children play... men playing card games. Church towers, a nunnery and a hospital annexed by art galleries and homes with  beautiful gardens are all nearby.

                                     There are many lively piazzas ringed with shops, cafes, and restaurants both inside and out.

VIA FILLUNGO (Shopping Street)

PIAZZA SAN MICHELE

San Michele in Foro
     There are many interesting churches and San Michele in Foro Square is just one. This is where the ancient Roman forum was.

                It is certainly the most photographed church in Lucca.  The facade of San Michele in Foro is a triumph of sculpture, carving and inlay work. The upper section gives the impression of a propped-up film set.  Because the money ran out before that part of the church could be raised to the level of the facade, the windows look through onto thin air. Every single column is different; some are elaborately carved, some twisted and spiraling, others are like striped candy. Be sure to look up at the statue of St. Michael the archangel - the wings are hinged and may be retracted if the wind gets up! If you observe the stairs behind the facade, you will see how the wings are manually moved by poles.

     And...  if you catch sight of a glimmer from up there you are in for some good luck - you'll have seen the jewel in a ring on the hand of the statue... as legend has it!

The facade of Lucca's Duomo is an excellent and eye-catching example of the Pisan-Lucchese Romanesque school of architecture. Long lines of baby columns -- every variety imaginable -- backed by discreet green-and-white Romanesque banding are stacked into three tiers of arcaded loggias. The cathedral holds a very important Catholic relic: the “Volto Santo” or “Santa Croce,” the Holy Cross which – according to the legend – was miraculously found to be sculpted by Nicodemus, the same man who helped Joseph of Arimathea deposit Christ’s body in his tomb. Every year, on September 13th there is a procession in honor of the Holy Cross. The cathedral is open every day from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm (in winter it closes at 5.00 pm).
 

Palazzo Pfanner

 A fine garden with the statues, loggia and fountains.