Loving Tuscany’s Lucca, Lucca, Italy (B)

Tuscany’s medieval Lucca holds you captivate until you fall in love with this gorgeous walled city near the Ligurian Sea.

Using Pisa as a base to explore Tuscany, train travel to Lucca, Florence, and Siena couldn’t be easier.

Lucca’s commanding medieval wall encircles the historic centre and confronts you at its imposing gates. Once within the confine of the walls, the stillness of the city and friendliness of locals riding bicycles or enjoying a cafe in one of the many piazzas is calming.

Streets are kept in pristine condition and Lucca doesn’t feel overrun by tourists as other cities like Florence feels.

With a deluge of ancient churches, museums, medieval architecture and of course the city’s walls, you’ll want to stay much longer.

At 11 to 12-metres high, Lucca’s Renaissance 9-metre-wide walls stretch 4.2-kilometres, encircling the city with this 4th construction of the walls, dating back to the mid-1600s to early 1800s.

The first construction built by the Romans was in the 2nd-century BC, followed by a second construction in the Middle Ages and finishing in 1270. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).