Lucca and the Lucchesia. Ideas for discovering them on foot and by bike. Maybe in a weekend

A city that seems to have emerged from an ancient dream. Lucca, with its majestic walls that embrace its narrow cobbled streets, is a place where time seems to pass more slowly, where there are corners where it has actually stopped. An intimate place. Here the medieval towers rise above the roofs of the city like silent sentinels, witnesses of centuries of history, while the hidden gardens reveal their charm only to those who venture beyond the walls that surround them. Lucca is a book of poems, where the verses are replaced by the alleys, and the words by the colors of the walls and the sound of laughter that resonate in the cobbled squares. An amber set in a green territory, all to be discovered, with a harsh and fascinating history. On foot or by bike through the center

From Porta San Pietro towards Piazza San Michele

One of the most suggestive entrances that allow access to the historic center is the sixteenth-century Porta San Pietro. Sixteenth-century gate. On its facade you can still see the slits where the chains that operated the old drawbridge passed, evidence of an ancient time. Just past the gate you reach Via Garibaldi, where there are several places to have a snack or rent a bike to tour the historic center.

From here you reach Piazza Napoleone, known to the people of Lucca as Piazza Grande. Here you will find the Palazzo Ducale, the centre of 19th century city politics. Just before entering Piazza San Michele, in Corte del Biancone there is the Piazzetta del Libro, a used book market, twinned with Les Bouquinistes in Paris. Here there are themed stalls where you can find gems and rarities. A few steps away, on Via Roma there is also Mondadori which is housed in a historic building characterised by a uniquely charming worked glass ceiling.

From Piazza San Michele to the shopping street

Piazza San Michele is probably the most beautiful and evocative of the city. The church of the same name is characterized by an imposing and evocative façade that rises above a staircase. On the south side you can see some mysterious graffiti probably from the fifteenth century, perhaps made during the city market. They depict boats, towers and flags. Also in the square is the historic pastry shop Taddeucci, where you can taste the typical sweet bread of the city: the Buccellato.

In Piazza Cittadella, a few dozen meters from San Michele, there is a statue dedicated to Giacomo Puccini near the birthplace of the composer from Lucca, now the Puccini Museum. The statue, in bronze, portrays the maestro in a somewhat irreverent pose: with his legs crossed and a cigarette in his hands. Returning to Piazza San Michele, behind the church is via Santa Lucia, where you can go and discover historic shops such as Prospero, Forno Giusti, Ortofrutta and the Vanni wine shop.

Nearby is Piazza San Salvatore with the statue in the center of Naiade that the people of Lucca call pupporona for her exposed breast. A few meters from the Church of San Michele there is a narrow alley with a typically medieval atmosphere: Chiasso Barletti. Here, hidden between the walls of the buildings, you can find typical restaurants and artisan shops. Just a few meters away is Via Fillungo. It is the living room and soul of the city, the historic street of quality shopping. Here you can still admire the historic signs of many shops from the 19th and early 20th centuries that have also given way to big names, and very old jewelers such as Carli, Pellegrini and Chiocchetti.

Reaching the Torre delle Ore is a snap. Its clock has marked Lucca time for a few centuries (about 19 minutes of difference with the “national” time of Rome). You can visit it by climbing its 207 steps, to be done calmly, admiring the gears of the eighteenth-century clock that accompany the climb to the top where the two bells mark the time of the city.

In the surroundings of Piazza dell'Anfiteatro

From via Fillungo you reach the suggestive piazza San Frediano and its church that will take your breath away with its mosaic face. Here is the elegant café Santa Zita where you can breathe in the most refined atmosphere of Lucca. A little further south is Palazzo Pfanner, the most scenic building in the city, the set of the blockbuster "Portrait of a Lady" by Jane Campion and the upcoming film "Lucca Mortis" by director Peter Greenaway, with Dustin Hoffman and Helen Hunt. In recent decades it was also one of the locations for the film "Il marchese del Grillo" by Mario Monicelli. It will reopen in spring after a careful redevelopment of its magnificent baroque garden designed by Filippo Juvarra, architect of the Savoy family, who designed the Venaria Reale. You then reach the most suggestive and picturesque corner of the city: Piazza dell'Anfiteatro. This unique urban space takes the shape of the ancient Roman amphitheater and preserves some of its original structures in the surrounding alleys.

Here the people of Lucca meet for a drink and to dine in the bars and outdoor areas in a truly intimate atmosphere. A little further south of the square is the Torre Guinigi. This can also be visited and is characterised by a very particular hanging garden that hosts seven holm oaks. A vertical forest ante litteram. Now it is also possible to visit the nearby Palazzo Guinigi, recently reopened to the public. A few metres from here, along via Sant'Andrea, there is a very particular shop: La tela di Penelope. Here they make high-quality products and take care of fragile people.

This is a sales point of a high-quality weaving laboratory (remember that Lucca was the capital of silk manufacturing in the 14th and 15th centuries) where very special personnel are employed: fragile women and men, who have been assisted by the mental health services of the ASL and, thanks to this activity managed by the Archimede Cultural Association for Social Promotion, are reintegrating into society. Even if the laboratory has only been in operation since 2021, it is a centuries-old tradition in Lucca: in the early 1900s in Lucca, patients admitted to the psychiatric hospital were also treated through the possibility of working on the ancient looms of the Maggiano asylum.

The asylum has been closed, but the original idea has remained. In the shop, in addition to being able to buy precious fabrics, it is also possible to admire some ancient looms with a unique charm, symbols of an almost thousand-year-old tradition. Always from Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, walking east along Via della Fratta, you reach Piazza San Francesco. This is another small city lounge with rooms and outdoor seating, in a quiet context, perfect for a romantic meeting.

Heading south, following the Fosso

From Piazza San Francesco, continue south along the charming Via del Fosso, characterized in the center by the presence of a stream of water that gives the street unique and romantic reflections. Along the street there is also a large garden protected by a high wall. This is the green space of Villa Bottini, a sixteenth-century building imagined as a country villa but right in the center. Continuing south along Via del Fosso and leaving Porta San Gervasio on the right, you reach the Botanical Garden. This green space extends for about two hectares and is home to an extraordinary variety of plants, coming from every corner of the world.

Don't miss the Giardino dei semplici, an area dedicated to medicinal and aromatic plants, used since ancient times for their healing properties. We then return to the starting point, but first visiting the Duomo di San Martino, characterized by an asymmetrical facade in Romanesque Lucca style, made of white and green marble, rich in decorations, among which the sculptures of Nicola Pisano and the reliefs depicting scenes from the life of San Martino stand out.

Discovering the Walls

Returning to Porta San Pietro, you can now begin the tour of the walls. Perfectly preserved and intact, they are a park where you can walk, hike, run, play sports. And above all, ride a bike. They are about 4.2 kilometers long and include 11 bastions and six main gates. Now the municipality is aiming for UNESCO recognition as a World Heritage Site. The classic tour offers different views and perspectives of the city. There are also refreshment points along the tree-lined elevated avenues, from the historic 19th-century Caffè delle Mura run by young people from Lucca to the Caffetteria San Colombano among the ancient ruins of the Walls at the Casa del Boia. Also worth discovering are the still little-known underground areas through the exhibition Re-cognizing the Walls in the Santa Croce underground. Local events and flavorsLucca is famous throughout the world for Comics (a very important comics and anime exhibition, among the first in the world) held from October 29 to November 2, and for the Summer Festival, an international music festival that animates the city between June and July.

But there are also other smaller but still interesting events. Starting with Lucca Gustosa, which is held this year from March 14 to 16. The 2025 edition will be a mix of food, culture, art and lots of music. There will also be a typical market to buy directly from local agricultural producers. The historic shops will be open and themed dinners will be organized in the Slow Food taverns, eight of them in the Lucca area.

Another important event that opens the spring season is Lucca Collezionando (March 22 and 23), a spin-off of Lucca Comics & Games. Then from April 23 to 27 Lucca Classica is held. The city of Puccini will host small concerts and music among its alleys, its buildings and its churches. Discovering the territory

The Puccini cycle path, from Lucca to the sea

In the Lucca area there is an easy cycle path that starts from the Serchio valley and arrives in Versilia, passing through the Tuscan city. It links the most important places in the life of the composer Giacomo Puccini, who recently celebrated 100 years since his death. From the land of his family's origin, to Versilia where he lived his maturity, passing through Lucca where he was born, and Torre del Lago where he loved to compose in his villa.

Leaving the city, you reach the town of Ponte a Moriano, a few kilometers to the north. Here begins the route that runs along the Serchio river for about 40 kilometers, pedaling in the Lucca countryside between rows of poplars, farmhouses and cultivated fields. At Ponte San Quirico, the cycle path joins the path of the Serchio River Park up to Ponte San Pietro in the town of Nave. The route continues towards Filettole then on the Costanza dirt road, you travel the stretch that reaches the bridge over the Fossa Nuova and then reach Lake Massaciuccoli, exactly at the height of the small port square in front of the LIPU headquarters, in a truly natural setting, to be experienced in silence, listening to the wind in the reeds and the chirping of birds. Here a ferry allows you to cross the lake with your bike in tow up to Torre del Lago.

The boat moves slowly on still waters in a truly fascinating context with the Apuan Alps providing a unique scenic backdrop. Once you reach the other bank, you can visit Casa Puccini, a real museum with his most important relics, from paintings to furnishings, without forgetting his very important work tool: the piano. A few more kilometers on the pedals and you reach the Viareggio seafront with its historic establishments. This cycle path, awarded in 2023 with the Oscar of cycling tourism, is characterized by the presence of signs with qr code that allows, by framing with the smartphone, to listen to Puccini's works while you pedal.

Lucca on foot

In addition to the cycle path, in winter (from December to March) trekking is organized to discover the territory of Lucca, in an unusual season but full of suggestions. Among the morning fogs, the environmental guides will lead the most curious to the discovery of an ancient land. The excursions are all free but reservations are required.