Lucca is a true haven. Aside from the architecture, Lucca also has some fantastic museums, gorgeous public squares and a fine selection of restaurants and bars.

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital of the Province of Lucca. It is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.

HIGLIGHTS

Lucca is a historical city located in Tuscany on the western coast of Italy – this city lies in close proximity to Pisa and is known as the city of a hundred churches due to its large amount of historical religious structures. Lucca is known throughout Italy for its fantastic medieval city walls that still encircle most of the historic old town.

Originally this city was founded by the Etruscans and was then a Roman colony around 180 BC. During the Roman era, Lucca served as an important meeting place for Julius Caesar and Crassus. In later years, the city was an independent republic for nearly 500 years as part of feudal Italy. During the 19th century, Lucca was conquered by Napoleon, and it finally became part of Unified Italy in 1860. Today, Lucca is a popular tourist destination and has close ties with Pisa.

Walls, streets, and squares

The walls encircling the old town remain intact, even as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. Initially built as a defensive rampart, once the walls lost their military importance they became a pedestrian promenade, the Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane, a street atop the walls linking the bastions. It passes through the Bastions of Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; and over the gates (Porte): San Donato, Santa Maria, San Jocopo, Elisa, San Pietro, and Sant’Anna. Each of the four principal sides of the structure is lined with a different tree species than the others.

The walled city is encircled by Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi (vide Guglielmo Marconi), Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini, Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento (vide Risorgimento), and Viale Giosuè Carducci.

The town includes a number of public squares, most notably the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, site of ancient Roman amphitheater; but also Piazzale Verdi; Piazza Napoleone’; and Piazza San Michele.The courtyard of Museo Nazionale di Palazzo MansiTeatro del GiglioPuccini’s statue on Piazza Cittadella created by Vito TongianiSan Michele in ForoSan Michele at Antraccoli

Palaces, villas, houses, offices, and museums

• Ducal Palace: built on the site of Castruccio Castracani‘s fortress. Construction began by Ammannati in 1577–1582, and continued by Juvarra in the eighteenth century
• Pfanner Palace
• Villa Garzoni, noted for its water gardens
• Casa di Puccini: House of the opera composer, at the nearby Torre del Lago, where the composer summered. A Puccini opera festival takes place every July–August
• Torre delle Ore: (“The Clock Tower”)
• Guinigi Tower and House: Panoramic view from tower-top balcony with oak trees
• National Museum of Villa Guinigi
• National Museum of Palazzo Mansi
• Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca: botanical garden dating from 1820
• Academy of Sciences (1584)
• Teatro del Giglio: nineteenth-century opera house
• San Francesco Convent Complex and Campus, home to IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca graduate and doctoral school.
• San Ponziano, a Renaissance-style, former Roman Catholic church, now the university library for IMT Lucca.

Churches

There are many medieval, a few as old as the eighth century, basilica-form churches with richly arcaded façades and campaniles

• Duomo di San Martino: St Martin’s Cathedral
• San Michele in Foro: Romanesque church
• San Giusto: Romanesque church
• Basilica di San Frediano
• Sant’Alessandro an example of medieval classicism
• Santa Giulia: Lombard church rebuilt in thirteenth century
• San Michele: church at Antraccoli, founded in 777, it was enlarged and rebuilt in the twelfth century with the introduction of a sixteenth-century portico
• San Giorgio church in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late twelfth century has a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style, the interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on lion sculptures, a highly decorated Romanesque octagonal baptismal fount, and the altar is supported by six small columns with human figures

Culture

Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini (La Bohème and Madama Butterfly), Nicolao Dorati, Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of artist Benedetto Brandimarte. Since 2004, Lucca is home to IMT Lucca, a public research institution and a selective graduate school and part of the Superior Graduate Schools in Italy (Grandes écoles).Guinigi Tower

Museums

• National Museum of Villa Guinigi
• Museum of Villa Mansi
• Museo della Cattedrale
• Lu.C.C.A. Museum of the Archaeology of the Lucca Cathedral
• Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca

Events

Lucca hosts the annual Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition featured live performances by Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman, and Santana at the Piazza Napoleone.

Lucca hosts the annual Lucca Comics and Games festival, Europe’s largest festival for comics, movies, games and related subjects.

Other events include:

• Lucca Film Festival
• Lucca Digital Photography Fest^[
• Procession of Santa Croce, on 13 September. Costume procession through the town’s roads.
• Lucca Jazz Donna

Film and television

Mauro Bolognini‘s 1958 film Giovani mariti with Sylva Koscina is set and was filmed in Lucca.^{[citation needed]}

Top Gear filmed the episode ‘series 17, episode 3‘ here.