"Wonderful City" a Lucca Travel Page by scanos

On Monday 20th October, I took eurostar from Venice to Florence. circa 2 hour 20 minutes and an onward train from florence to Lucca – (careful there is a train which takes 1 hour 20 minutes and another 1 hour 45).

On arriving in Lucca head north from the station for a couple of 100 metres until you reach the very impressive city walls, proceed through these and you will find ypurself in the old city.

On passing through the city walls opposite the FS you will first see the impressive Catedrale San martino and its tower – after that you pretty much just wander through the very interesting old town to people watch and look at the quaint shops. Of note is the Piazza Anfiteatro the site of the original amphitheatre. The main street is Via Filungo which winds north towards piazza santa maria del borgo. Here you will find a very good tourist information and excellent cycle hire shops. Dont miss the opportunity to cycle around the 4 kms of city walls to get a real feel for Lucca - for me the highlight of my trip.

In contrast to Florence and Siena, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly without the tourist hordes. There are always event centred around the town's most famous son, Puccini. It is certainly worth taking in one of these concerts.

The cafes are friendly – I visited Bar Paccini in Piazza Napoleone and paid 2e50 for a glass of excellent local wineand 0e30 for a glass of water with free tapas thrown in – the cafe was about to close and so the remaining sandwiches were cut up and given to the patrons.

Should you wish to go further afield for some walking in the national park take the train to Castelnuovo Garfagnaria –direction piazza al sercho
down side of this affluent city is the price of hotels – circa 100 euros for a single room