Lucca is the capital of the Province of Lucchesia and is one of the richest areas in Tuscany for history, tradition and culture.
The area offers an extraordinary variety of interesting destinations from Versilia on the Tyrrhenian coast, where there are international seaside resorts such as Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi, to Garfagnana renowned for its natural beauty in the Apuan Alps, to the hills overlooking Lucca where wine and olive oil abound together with some of the most beautiful and historically renowned homes in Tuscany.
Lucca is one of the most ancient towns of Etruria with its rich cultural and mercantile heritage and boasts a unique town centre, which is completely enclosed by monumental walls, which date back to the 1500th century. The Wall, whilst not being quite as well known as the Great Wall of China, is a spectacular fortification. There are also churches, of course, monuments and the gardens of the great villas.
Lucca is the perfect starting point for anyone wishing to visit the other famous cities and towns in Tuscany and in the neighbouring regions. A well-developed motorway network connects Lucca to Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Cortona, Perugia, Assisi, S.Gemignano, Volterra, Montecatini, Pisa, Viareggio, Lerici, Portovenere, Le 5 Terre and the Island of Elba.
Lucca is as graceful as they come, set inside a thick swathe of Renaissance walls, and with a quiet, almost entirely medieval street plan. Palazziand the odd tower dot the streets, at intervals overlooked by a brilliantly decorated Romanesque facade. It's not exactly undiscovered, but for once the number of tourists seems to fit.
The most enjoyable way to get your bearings is to follow the path around the top of the Walls - nearly 4km in extent and built with genuine defensive capability in the early sixteenth century, before being transformed to their present, garden aspect by the Bourbon ruler, Marie Louise. In the centre of town, just east of the main Piazza Napoleone on Piazza San Martino, the Duomo of San Martino was in part sculpted by Nicola Pisano, though sadly recent years have seen his sculptures covered for restoration, along with virtually all the high points of the great hall-like interior, which include paintings by Tintoretto, Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi. The most famous item, Jacopo della Quercia's Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, has been restored so vigorously that one expert declared it had been ruined - prompting a libel action from the restorer. Lucca's finest sculptor was perhaps Matteo Civitali, whose Tempietto in the north aisle was sculpted to house the city's most famous and lucrative relic, the Volto Santo ("Holy Face") - said to be the "true effigy of Christ" and the focus for international pilgrimage.
Northwest of the Duomo across Via Fillungo, the facade of San Michele in Foro church is a triumph of eccentricity, each of its loggia columns different, some twisted, others sculpted or candy-striped. The interior is relatively plain, though there's a good Andrea della Robbia terracotta and a painting by Filippino Lippi. Giacomo Puccini was born almost opposite at Via di Poggio 30, and his home, the Casa di Puccini, is now a school of music with a small museum, featuring the Steinway piano on which he composed Turandot, along with original scores and photographs from premieres. At the end of the street in Via Galli Tassi is the seventeenth-century Palazzo Mansi, which houses a Pinacoteca Nazionale, an indifferent collection of pictures, although the Rococo palace itself is a sight, at its most extreme in a spectacularly gilded bridal suite.
Northeast of here, the basilica of San Frediano has a facade with a brilliant thirteenth-century mosaic of Christ in Majesty and fine treasures inside, most enjoyable of which is the font carved with Romanesque scenes of Moses, the Good Shepherd and Apostles; set behind it is a ceramic Annunciation by Andrea della Robbia.
Be sure to visit the remarkable Piazza Anfiteatro, a circuit of medieval buildings whose foundations are the arches of the Roman amphitheatre. Just southeast, the strangest sight in Lucca is perhaps the Casa Guinigi, the fifteenth-century home of Lucca's leading family, with a battlemented tower surmounted by holm oaks whose roots have grown into the room below. Much of it is being restored, but from Via San Andrea you can climb it for one of the best views over the city. Across the narrow canal on Via della Quarquonia, the fifteenth-century Villa Guinigi is now the home of Lucca's major museum of art and sculpture, the Museo Nazionale Guinigi, with a good deal of lively Romanesque sculpture from the city and some good work by the cathedral's maestro, Matteo Civitali.
The Villas of Lucca are situated in an area extends from the town centre, framed by the lush gardens of these town houses, to the foothills of the Pizzorne mountains. There are about 300 houses in all, designed in a variety of styles and built in a magnificent setting between 1330 and 1800 and continue to offer peaceful days and harmony to those who venture there.
Geographically these villas are situated in Lucca, and in the neighbouring districts of: Capannori, Porcari, Montecarlo, all areas of historical interest.
For those who come to Italy by air: Direction Airport Galileo Galilei (Pisa)