Lucca

Lucca was probably our favourite town in Tuscany, whilst hardly a hidden gem, it is less trodden than nearby Florence, Pisa and Siena, yet lies a mere 30 minutes or 20km away from Pisa. We arrived on the train from Florence and left in the direction of Pisa. Despite our visit to the town being very wet, we still enjoyed it more than anywhere else in the region. The town itself is made up of little neat streets that lead from square to square and are mostly just regular residential housing, in the very centre most bottom floors contain shops of some kind - butchers, supermarkets, wineries, coffee shops and so on. The so-called amphitheatre, a ...  Read the complete review

A visit to Lucca is well worth it. It is surrounded by complete walls, and you can hire a bicycle to make the circuit, or walk it in the evenings when the heat has gone, in about 1.5 hours. Lucca has more churches than most cities. Almost all are worth a visit, for all contain something worthy of note.The Cathedral is in a slightly quiet part of the city. The Church of San Michele has a fine front in the Pisan style, with every pillar different. San Frediano has a wonderful colourful Mosaic on the outside, and a fantastic font by one of the della Robbia brothers inside. Alone among the churches, it closes for only a short time in the middle of the day in the ...  Read the complete review