The city is, I’d argue, the best in Italy (Image: Getty)
What was the first big family holiday you went on?
For me, our first family adventure abroad was at the end of primary school, to Italy. It was a big hurrah, with three families jumping into the car and driving for two days to a beautiful villa borrowed from a friend’s well-to-do aunt.
When we weren’t chasing lizards, watching a small whirlwind miraculously rise up out of the scrubland, and using the serving machine to fire tennis balls into the swimming pool like a mortar, we were exploring Tuscany, or Chiantishire, as the Brit-heavy, wine-producing region is sometimes known.
One afternoon had us melting in a queue for Florence’s Duomo and traipsing around the Uffizi. Another saw us propping up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, as is legally required when in the city. But none of these places held a candle to a beautiful city I’ve since returned to three times and believe offers everything you need from an Italian destination.
The medieval marble labyrinth of church Cattedrale di San Martino (Image: Getty)
Lucca is less famous and smaller than Florence and Siena to its east, and attracts fewer transiting tourists than travel hub Pisa to its west, but the charming city of 90,000 is the perfect place to visit for a day or two.
Even if the grand amphitheatre they built there is now ruined, the Romans’ arrival in 180 BC is still very evident in the rectangular layout of the streets. More prominent are the city’s many Gothic churches (over 100 by one count) and 16th-century palaces, such as the Palazzo Pretorio and the Palazzo della Prefettura, which houses the National Art Gallery. Whether you’re interested in the city’s past or not, it’s impossible to miss the dense history and evident wealth of Lucca while walking the cobbles of this compact city.
The place is best understood from the top of the 4.2 km of walls, built between 1504 and 1648 to defend against rival city-states (and now competing city-break destinations) Florence and Pisa. Happily, the walls were never needed in battle. The most action they saw was holding back a major flood of the Serchio River in 1812. Today, they’re converted into a tree-lined public promenade and park, shaded by roughly 1,000 mature plane and horse chestnut trees.
The city is a charming place to wander around in the morning, when the bells of the churches ring out as locals partake in the time-honoured tradition of an espresso and cigarette. At nighttime, the city comes to life.
The city sits close to Pisa (Image: Getty)
Piazza dell’Anfiteatro is the prettiest spot in Lucca and the place to be when night falls. Yellow-painted, green-shuttered buildings surround the ovular piazza, creating a sort of terraced effect that opens up at four ‘gateways’ to enter through. It can feel like a small enclosed city within the walled city.
While much smaller than Siena’s scallop-shaped piazza, Piazza dell’Anfiteatro is prettier and more manageable of an evening. There are a number of restaurants that bring their tables out onto the slabs, and while I have only eaten at a couple, the food was delicious and the service was a bit more personal than you might get in the busier, more touristy Tuscan cities.
The last time I visited, the vast Luna Funfair was in town, with Italian teenagers attempting to score past a robotic goalkeeper while flirting with one another, providing perfect post-dinner entertainment.
Lucca boasts a long musical tradition. Almost everywhere you turn, there is a piazza dedicated to a famous musician or a palazzo housing a school of music. It’s the birthplace of opera composer Giacomo Puccini and a disproportionate number of world-class musicians, including Nicolao Dorati, Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori, Francesco Barsanti, Francesco Geminiani, Filippo Manfredi and Luigi Boccherini.
Puccini’s home is now a small museum, set up as it would have been when he lived there. You can see his actual piano and personal letters, along with costumes and various opera-related memorabilia.
As much as Italy is blessed with more beautiful villages, towns and cities than probably any country on Earth, if you are looking for a new one to visit, then you won’t go far wrong with Lucca.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
