ITALY - TUSCANY: LUCCA

After travelling to Rome last year, I have come back to Italy to visit two nice areas of northern Italy: Tuscany and Lombardia. There are really lovely villages in these two provinces of Italy, as well as the beautiful city of Florence.

After visiting Pisa and its Leaning Tower in El Campo dei Miracoli, we went to Lucca by train, where we spent a lovely afternoon. Lucca isn't actually a famous town in Tuscany. However I strongly recommend visiting it.

I really liked its Pisan-Romanesque churches, its colourful buildings, its quiet streets and, especially, I was surprised by the Lucca city walls and the promenade along it.

Lucca has more than 4 km of walls surrounded by a green carpet of grass. The walls are like a huge park around the city where citizens can walk or cycling or just enjoy this charming environment.

Overview of Lucca city walls are surrounded by a green carpet of grass

San Frediano church in Lucca from Guinigi Tower. From this tower the views were nice

Colourful building in Piazza Anfiteatro. Lucca's Roman amphitheatre was long ago mined for building stone but its oval remained as a base for medieval houses

Piazza Anfiteatro in Lucca is now a quiet piazza, with ancient arches embedded in house walls

From the Lucca city walls I enjoyed this view of Pfanner gardens in front of San Frediano

I really liked this view of Pfanner gardens with its fountain from the Lucca city walls

An interesting activity you can do in Lucca is to rent a bicycle and climb onto the city walls

However I chose to stroll the Lucca city walls on foot

In Lucca, buildings have usually colourful façades, what gives Lucca a bright look

San Michele in Foro was also built in Pisan-Romanesque style. Its arcades are stacked even higher than the Duomo's

Piazza Napoleone in Lucca is large square surrounded by colourful buildings

San Martino, the Duomo of Lucca

Main façade of San Martino where you can see Pisan-Romanesque arcades over a portico of Romanesque carvings

Nice green area in front of the Lucca city walls

Walking along the Lucca city walls is one of the most pleasant activities you can do in Lucca

As you can see, we enjoyed an intense day, so we came back to Florence a bit tired but really happy. The next day we visited the Uffizi and, afterwards, we took a train to Milano.


Below you have the places we visited in Tuscany and Lombardia:

- Tuscany

• Florence
• San Gimignano
• Siena
• Pisa
• Lucca

- Lombardia

• Milano
• Lago di Como and Bellagio
• Bergamo

Finally, you can see more pictures of the days I spent in Rome last year clicking on the next links:

• Pictures of our first day in Rome
• Pictures of our second day in Rome
• Pictures of our third day in Rome
• Pictures of our fourth day in Rome
• Pictures of our fifth and sixth day in Rome

Other great cities and countries I have visited are:

• Barcelona
• Berlin
• New York and Washington
• London
• Dublin in Irleland
• Istanbul in Turkey
• Saint Petersburg
• Rome and The Vatican
• Paris
• Lisboa in Portugal
• Madrid
• Venezia
• Dubrovnik in Croatia

• The Greek Islands and Athens
• Bruges, Ghent and Brussels in Belgium

• Helsinki and Lapland in Finland

• Tallinn in Estonia

• Tortuguero, Caribe, Arenal, Monteverde and San José in Costa Rica

• Marrakech in Morocco