What is Lucca known for?

Four kilometers of intact sixteenth-century Renaissance city walls, the only complete walls of their scale left in Italy, now a tree-lined promenade. Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca in 1858; his birthplace is a museum and the Puccini Festival runs each summer at nearby Torre del Lago. Annual comics, games and pop-culture festival running each October-November, the largest of its kind in Europe with around 300,000 attendees.

Lucca is a comune in the province of Lucca, Tuscany region of Italy, about 23 kilometers from Pisa.

Tuscany · Lucca

Lucca

The provincial capital ringed by four kilometers of intact sixteenth-century walls, birthplace of Puccini and the only fully walled Italian city of its scale.

23 km / 14 mi

Nearest hub (Pisa)

88,798

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Via Francigena

Why come

Lucca sitson the Serchio plain, a Roman colony from 180 BC laid out in a grid still visible in the centro storico. The current walls run four kilometers around the city, twelve meters high and thirty meters wide, built between 1513 and 1645 and never breached. They are now a tree-lined elevated promenade circling the old city, and one of the only complete Renaissance city walls left in Italy. The Piazza dell'Anfiteatro preserves the elliptical footprint of a second-century Roman amphitheater that once held ten thousand spectators; the ring of houses follows the arena's exact shape. The Cattedrale di San Martino holds the Volto Santo crucifix and Jacopo della Quercia's tomb of Ilaria del Carretto. Giacomo Puccini was born here in 1858. The town gets the Lucca Comics & Games festival every October-November, the largest comics convention in Europe at 300,000 attendees.

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Gallery

7 photos · scroll →

We've been

Feature from our free newsletter

Lucca | The City You Cannot Photograph

We came in through Porta Santa Maria on a Tuesday afternoon in February, with the sun low and the wind off the Apuane sharp enough to flatten Sophia's coat against her, and there was nobody there. A man in a green trench was walking a dog. Two old women were having a conversation on a bench inside the wall, slowly, in dialect, with long pauses.

Read the full feature on anywhereitaly.com

We’ve tried

Restaurants, walks, swims. Things we tried in Lucca.

The tordello, the meat-stuffed pasta that is Versilia telling you it isn't Lucca.
Tordello | What the tordello says

Known for

Mura di Lucca
Four kilometers of intact sixteenth-century walls, 12 meters high and 30 meters wide, built 1513-1645, now an elevated tree-lined promenade.
Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
Elliptical square preserving the footprint of a second-century Roman amphitheater that once seated ten thousand.
Cattedrale di San Martino
Eleventh-century cathedral with a Romanesque-Gothic façade, the Volto Santo crucifix and Jacopo della Quercia's tomb of Ilaria del Carretto from 1406.
San Michele in Foro
Romanesque church built on the site of the Roman forum, with a four-tier marble façade and a Filippino Lippi panel inside.
Torre Guinigi
Fourteenth-century brick tower with seven holm oaks growing from its rooftop terrace, 45 meters above the centro storico.
Casa Natale di Puccini
Giacomo Puccini's birthplace on Corte San Lorenzo, now a museum with the Steinway he used to compose Turandot.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October bracket the year. May is the Lucca Classica music festival and the Lucca Biennale Cartasia in even years. October-November brings Lucca Comics & Games and the centro storico fills with around 300,000 attendees; book a year ahead. July and August push the centro into thirty-plus degrees but the wall promenade catches the wind and the wood-shaded ramparts work as evening corridors. November through March is mild and quiet, the cathedral and San Michele stay open, the wall walk runs year-round, and the Puccini Festival programs winter concerts at Torre del Lago.