Lovely Lucca

I flew from Manchester to Pisa and I suspect most people on the plane were heading off to Florence – a truly beautiful city and a must see – and one that myself and my travelling companion (my mum) had already visited, years ago. Instead, we escaped the crowds and took a short, 20-minute taxi ride to Hotel Ilaria, our home for the next three nights.

One of the highlights of the city is Piazza dell Anfiteatro (Amphitheatre Square), an oval shaped square which dates from Roman times. Encircled by beautiful buildings, I would suggest choosing a café/restaurant (there are lots all-round the piazza), sitting in the sunshine, enjoying a coffee or an aperitivo whilst watching life go by. There’s often live music which adds to the atmosphere.

I spent a very nice morning walking along the entire medieval walls of the city. It’s about 5km in total and there’s a broad, tree-lined path on top of the ramparts which date from the 16th and 17th century. The views of the city and the surrounding countryside, all the way to the hills, are lovely.

Lucca is often known as the ‘city of one hundred churches’ and there certainly did seem to be a lot of churches on street corners and in piazzas. I visited the Duomo di Lucca (Lucca Cathedral), a Romanesque church with a very ornate façade, dating from the 11th century.

Torre Guinigi (Guinigi Tower) is famous for the trees that grow on the rooftop. Built by the Guinigi family in the 1300s, they planted Holm oaks on the roof of the tower to represent rebirth and renewal. I climbed to the top, 45 metres, up 233 steps. You get the most fantastic views of the whole city and beyond from the top of the tower. I loved looking down onto the terracotta rooftops and spotting sights across the city that I had visited.

Via Fillungo is the main shopping street and you’ll definitely walk up and down here during your mooching around the city.

As you might expect, being in Italy, a big focus was on food and drink. One of the most popular dishes in the city is Tortelli Lucchese. It’s similar to meat ravioli, typically in the shape of a half-circle and usually filled with a mix of minced meat, greens, pine nuts and raisins – it was very tasty. Buccellato is the cake of the city – a sweet and soft pastry with raisins and aniseed. And, of course, no holiday would be complete without an ice cream. I found Gelateria Veneta Lucca down a side street near Piazza dell’Anfiteatro (it’s been in business since 1927!) and enjoyed a delicious combination of chocolate, lemon and raspberry gelato.

Lucca is also home to Giacomo Puccini, one of the world's greatest opera composers. He was born in the city in 1858. There are concerts every evening and we enjoyed an hour-long performance of some of his most well-known operas including Madam Butterfly, Tosca and La Boheme.

Lucca was a great place to spend a few days. It was relaxed and I didn’t feel under pressure to ‘tick off’ a big list of sights. It was lovely to wander the cobblestone streets, look at beautiful architecture, discover little squares and piazzas, the weather was mostly warm and sunny, the people were friendly and I enjoyed lots of delicious Italian food and wine. Perfect!