The Genteel Side of Tuscany

A travel guide to the Tuscan city of Lucca

LUCCA 101
Information
www.lucca.turismo.toscana.it
Where to stay
Piccolo Hotel Puccini
Hotel La Luna
Hotel Universo
Hotel Illaria
Hotel A Palazzo Busdraghi
» More hotels in Lucca (from €60)
» B&Bs in Lucca (from €40)
» Apartments in Lucca (from €45)

Lucca is a genteel, unjustifiably overlooked city set into plains that wash up against the foothills of the snow-capped Apuan Alps where Michelangelo mined his marble. The choirs of its Romanesque churches once rang with the young voices of future composers

Puccini

and

Boccherini

.

Puccini warbled at the church of

San Michele in Foro,

rising at the very center of town on the site of Lucca's ancient forum. Its lofty façade is distinctive of the local Romanesque style, a towering stack of open arcades kneeling on rows of midget, mismatched columns.

The stack of 13th century façade arcades on the

Duomo di San Martino

cathedral hang above a portico packed with medieval carvings and sculptures. The sacristy (adm) preserves Lucca's great art treasure, Jacopo della Quercia's masterly early

Renaissance tomb of Ilaria Guinigi,

a tragic beauty who married the town boss before dying at 26.

The cathedral's religious treasure is the

Volto Santo,

a time-blackened Christ that legend holds was carved by Nicodemus himself (it's probably a 13th century copy of an 8th century Syrian work). It was so famous in the Middle Ages that it even gave rise to a fictional saint in some southern French villages, where—reports from pilgrims coming home from Italy apparently having gotten a bit garbled—they built churches dedicated to that famous Italian "Saint Vauduluc" (a corruption of the French for "The Santo Volto of Lucca").

This ancient town still preserves its

Roman street plan

—including

Piazza Anfiteatro,

an oval of medieval buildings grafted onto the ancient amphitheater's remains—within a circuit of massive

16th century brick bastions.

These broad ramparts were turned into a narrow city park by Princess Elisa Bacciocchi, Napoléon's sister, whose regency ended Lucca's long centuries as an independent republic. It's now a grand, tree-shaded avenue thronged with Luccans strolling or riding their bicycles.

Luccans far prefer biking to driving, and you'll find few cars within the walls (rent your own wheels for about €2 per hour at the rental outfits on Piazza Santa Maria).

At 4:30pm, locals line up at the Art Nouveau take-out window of

Amadeo Giusti,

Via Santa Lucia 18-20, to snack on Lucca's best pizza bianca (the "white pizza," a.k.a. foccacia, with no sauce or cheese, just a little olive oil and rosemary). They then take it on their evening passeggiata stroll along

shop-lined Via Fillungo,

popping into historic

1846 Antico Caffé di Simo

at no. 47 for an espresso or Campari-soda.

For more information, visit www.lucca.turismo.toscana.it.

Where to Stay in Lucca

Lucca's best hotels are all small, family-run affairs. Phone ahead to book at the excellent

Piccolo Hotel Puccini

run by the wonderfully helpful Paolo a block from central Piazza San Michele (Via di Poggio 9, 0583-55-421, www.hotelpuccini.com, from €88 online).

On a pocket-sized piazza off Via Fillungo sits the amiable

La Luna

, where 17th century frescoes decorate a few of the otherwise contemporary rooms (Corte Compagni 12, 0583-493-634, www.hotellaluna.com, from €112).

Cheapest of the lot, half a block from the Duomo near the city's southern walls, simple little

Albergo Diana

is divided into the main hotel and a slightly more luxurious, more (relatively) expensive "Dependance" annex. Wonderfully inexpensive, though the staff is sometimes surly (Via Molinetto 11, 0583-492-202, www.albergodiana.com).

For more hotels in Lucca, click here.

Where to Eat in Lucca

For a light meal in Lucca, head to

Pizzeria da Felice

for excellent pizza by the slice along with the local specialty flatbreads: cecina, made with chickpeas, and castagnaccio, a chestnut-flour pancake stuffed with sweet ricotta (Via Buia 12, 0583-494-986).

Lucca sports three excellent trattorie serving up inexpensive, heaping portions of Luccese dishes, including zuppa di farro (emmer soup).

Da Leo

is the old-fashioned lunch spot of choice for locals just off the central Piazza San Michele (Via Tegrimi 1, 0583-492-236).

Huge

Da Giulio

packs them in for dinner, making up for the lack of decor in with quality cooking and smiling service (Via Conce 45/Piazza San Donato, 0583-55-948).

Papa runs the single room of homey

Da Guido,

mamma runs the kitchen, and there's a TV blaring in the corner—making it a tyrpical low-key, local Italian joint (Via Cesare Battisti 28, 0583-476-219).

How to Get to Lucca

Lucca lies on the

Florence–Viareggio train line

; it's also a short hop from Pisa, which a major stop on the main coastal line north from Rome.

[This is an excerpt from my article "Twice the Tuscany, Half the Cost," originally published in the September 2002 issue of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine. All information was updated in September 2006. Reprinted with permission.]