Lovely Lucca Italy
If you find yourself spending some time in Italy try to get out of the big cities and discover some of the smaller ones. We made a short stop in Lucca on our last adventure to Italy and found we loved this small, walled city.
There are actually two parts to the city, the ancient walled in section, where most of the tourists stay and the more modern portion that surrounds it. Outside of the wall we stopped at what we thought was an ancient aqueduct.
Turns out this aqueduct was actually built in the 1800’s as a way to transport water from the surrounding mountains. It is very much made in the ancient Roman style. The length of the aqueduct was originally 2 miles long with 400 arches. Then, in about 1938, Mussolini ordered it cut so a highway could be built through the middle of it. While driving down the highway today you can still see where it was disrupted.
Once inside the walls of the city, there is no need for a car. I jokingly said, “everything is a 6 minute walk away,” and that pretty much was the case.
Our first stop was for pizza. We’d heard a lot about the little hole in the wall called Pizza de Felice. There were just a couple of tables inside and out. We got our pieces and proceeded to eat outside. It was delicious.
We ordered the traditional Margarita Pizza. They were selling the pizza as fast as they can make them.
We then just enjoyed walking around the little town. For such a small town, there are a lot of churches. This beautiful church is called located in the Piazza San Frediano. It’s called the Basilica of San Frediano, known for it’s beautiful mosaic facade. It was first built in the 6th century and expanded further in 13th and 14th century. We did not go inside but it was certainly pretty from the outside.
Along with a lot of churches come a lot of bell towers. In this case, however, the bell tower has nothing to do with a church. The Guinigi Tower is known for the unusual oak trees that grow on the top of it. It was built in the 13th century by the Guinigi family as part of their residence. The trend at the time, was for wealthy families to build towers to show off their wealth. We did not hike up this one but was sure pretty to look up to.
Next up was the Lucca cathedral or the Cathedral of Saint Martin. Construction on the cathedral started in the 11th century. For such a small city, it was a grand cathedral.
Inside was just as grand with many works of art throughout as well as beautiful architecture.
Back outside we found access to the wall that surrounds the city. You can walk or bike all around the city on the wall. It was a pretty afternoon so we walked for a bit. Lucca dates back to the 1st century with a great deal of Roman and Etruscan history at every turn. The walls were built in about 180 AD and then refortified around the 14th century. It is said there is no eastern entrance to the walled city as the greatest enemy to Lucca was Florence, to the east. I am not sure if that is completely true but it seems somewhat reasonable.
The walls were about 30 ft high and with the circumference just under 3 miles. Of course, we had to be a little silly and never were at risk of falling off.
Beautiful pond with lily pads in a garden inside the wall.
One of the old gates, or entrances, to the walled city. As you can see, now it’s only used for foot and bike traffic.
Our time was short, and we ended our stay at a cute cafe right outside of our Airbnb. We had the most delicious cappuccino and croissant, outside on a lovely morning in Lucca Italy. We would highly recommend a stay in this ancient walled city in Italy.
