Lucca;  a city in Tuscany.   A great city to visit.

I have visited Lucca several times but this last time I stayed in the heart of the wall city of Lucca in an apartment for a week.  It is very easy to stay in Lucca for a week or in fact longer as there is so much to do and see. While staying in Lucca, we had planned to visit other towns in Tuscany however apart from our Chianti Wine Tour we did not leave the city walls. We loved being in Lucca and  were never short of things to do.

One of my favourite activities in Lucca is to rent this bicycle built for 2 and explore this delightful walled city. There were 3 of us on our bike.  But, on many occasions I saw more than 3 people on these great little machines. You certainly do not need to know how to ride a bike to manage one of these. Even though there are 2 steering wheels, only one person has control which can be weird for the other person as your automatic instinct is to turn the steering wheel which does nothing.

It is a pleasure to walk or ride a bike on top of these thick walls which are tree-lined and planted with grass turning the entire area into a huge park. These walls which enclose Lucca’s historic centre are more than 4 kilometres long with 6 gates.

I have hired bikes several times in Lucca. On this last trip we rented the bike twice as it was so much fun and just so easy. The first time was riding around the city on top of the wall and the second time was riding around exploring within the city.

The ride or walk around the wall has a really great buzz, with lots of cyclists, runners, families and dog walkers. Although its only about 4km it took us almost an hour as we stopped often to look at and take photos of the spectacular views of the mountains and city.

This has to be one of the best walls to walk or cycle. It is wide, flat and lined with trees and dotted with parks. We loved cycling around it

Walking or biking on top of the walls is a great way to see Lucca.