A bicycle ride around the walls
Rent a bicycle at any of the shops just inside the walls and ride the full four-kilometre circuit. Best at golden hour with the city below.
The Walled City
Lucca Luxury Villa Rentals
A walled city you can bicycle around, bell towers above terracotta roofs, and aperitivo with no real hurry.
Lucca is the walled medieval city you can bicycle around — the four-kilometre Renaissance ramparts still intact, the centro storico unchanged since the 14th century, and life inside still lived at the pace of pedestrians.
Stay in a villa just outside the walls or up in the hills above — at Lucchesia's olive-and-vineyard country — and the city is fifteen minutes away whenever you want it.
Our villas near Lucca sleep 8 to 24 guests and run from €7,495 to €23,200 a week. Rented together, the six villas of the Coselli estate sleep 101.
Best Villas
Best villas in Lucca
Lucca
Villa Frantoio
4 Beds·5 Baths·8 Guests
From €7,495 / week
Lucca
Casa Felice Matteucci
7 Beds·7.5 Baths·14 Guests
From €11,995 / week
Lucca
Villa Lenka
7 Beds·8 Baths·14 Guests
From €14,995 / week
Lucca
Casa Del Fattore
8 Beds·10 Baths·15 Guests
From €14,995 / week
Lucca
Borgo Bernardini
12 Beds·12 Baths·24 Guests
From €23,200 / week
Lucca
Villa Controni
12 Beds·14 Baths·24 Guests
From €21,995 / week
Lucca
Coselli Estate
51 Beds·51 Baths·101 Guests
From €94,000 / week
Private experiences
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Experiences
Activities & experiences
Piano-and-opera evening at Puccini's house
Puccini's birthplace in Lucca holds intimate piano-and-voice evenings most nights in summer. A drink, an hour of arias, dinner after.
Pasta-making at a Lucchesia villa
Tortelli lucchesi, hand-rolled pici, the family ragù — half a day at a Lucchesia farmhouse with a nonna and a long lunch.
Vineyard tasting in the Colline Lucchesi
The Lucchesia hills just north of the city have a quiet wine country of their own. A morning at a small family producer, the Colline Lucchesi DOC, lunch with the vineyard.
Versilia beach day at Forte dei Marmi
Thirty minutes west to the most chic stretch of the Tuscan coast. A private beach club, lunch at La Capannina di Franceschi, dinner at Bistrot in Forte dei Marmi.
The Garfagnana mountain morning
Forty-five minutes north into the Apuan Alps. Hike, swim in a mountain pool, lunch at a malga.
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Beyond the Villa
Day trips
Pisa
Thirty minutes west. The Leaning Tower at opening, lunch at Vecchia Posta, an afternoon in the Camposanto and the Duomo Museum.
Florence
An hour east by car or train. The Duomo, Uffizi, San Lorenzo market lunch, then back to Lucca by dinner.
Cinque Terre
Ninety minutes northwest. A boat between the five villages, swim in Manarola, lunch at Belforte in Vernazza.
Forte dei Marmi & Versilia
Thirty minutes west to the coast. Sunbathing at a stabilimento, lunch on the beach, dinner in Pietrasanta.
The marble quarries at Carrara
Forty-five minutes northwest. A jeep tour into the working marble quarries Michelangelo used — the most cinematic landscape in Tuscany.
Siena & Chianti
Two hours south. A vineyard lunch in Chianti and an afternoon walk on the Campo.
Climate
Average monthly highs
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52°F | 54°F | 60°F | 65°F | 72°F | 79°F | 83°F | 83°F | 77°F | 67°F | 58°F | 52°F |
Source: long-term monthly averages for the region. Sea temperatures stay comfortable for swimming May through October.
Where to Stay
Inside the walls or in the hills
Lucca's walled center is lovely for a night or two. For a week with family or friends, a villa in the hills just outside gives you a pool, a long table under the olive trees and somewhere to park, with the walls ten to fifteen minutes away.
The villas we know best are on the Coselli estate in Capannori, just east of Lucca: six independent villas, each with its own gate, garden, kitchen and private pool, on the same historic grounds. Villa Frantoio sleeps 8, Casa Felice Matteucci 14, Casa del Fattore 15 and Villa Lenka 16, and Borgo Bernardini and Villa Controni each sleep 24. Rented together as the Coselli Estate, they sleep 101 in 51 bedrooms, enough for a wedding or a very large family reunion.
Villa Lenka was built in 1624 as the country house of Count Cosimo Bernardini. Casa Felice Matteucci was the workshop of Felice Matteucci, co-inventor of the internal combustion engine. Casa del Fattore is close to the village of Vorno, which has a small grocery, a café and a restaurant.
From the estate, Pisa is 20 to 30 minutes away, the Versilia beaches about half an hour, Florence about an hour and the Cinque Terre an hour to an hour and a half.
Where it is
Lucca on the map
7 villas in Lucca. Tap a pin to see the villa; locations are approximate. See all our villas on the map.
Travelers Ask
Frequently asked questions
Lucca is the only Tuscan city whose Renaissance walls were never breached and were never torn down. Today those walls are a tree-lined park, four kilometres around the entire centro storico, where everyone in Lucca walks and bicycles after dinner.
Inside the walls, the city is small and dense and beautiful. Piazza dell'Anfiteatro (the oval piazza built over a Roman amphitheatre), San Michele in Foro with the four-story marble façade, the Duomo and its labyrinth, the Torre Guinigi with the oak trees growing on top, Puccini's house and the Puccini Festival each summer in nearby Torre del Lago.
Around Lucca is the Lucchesia, the olive-and-vineyard countryside where the great Tuscan farmhouse villas sit. To the north, the Garfagnana mountains. To the west, the Versilia coast (Forte dei Marmi, Pietrasanta, Viareggio). To the east, Pistoia and Florence. To the southwest, Pisa.
The food in Lucca leans toward the simpler, older end of Tuscan cooking — buccellato (a sweet anise bread), tortelli lucchesi with meat sauce, farro soup, garmugia (a spring vegetable soup), the Colline Lucchesi DOC red. Restaurants we book repeatedly: Buca di Sant'Antonio, La Pecora Nera, Locanda dell'Angelo, All'Olivo.
May, June, and September are our favourites. The walls are at their best in spring with the trees in leaf; the Puccini Festival runs July and August in nearby Torre del Lago. October is quiet and beautiful in the Lucchesia hills with the olive harvest. Winter is grey but the city is intimate.
Lucca's climate is slightly milder than inland Tuscany thanks to the nearby Tyrrhenian coast. Monthly highs run from 52°F in January to 83°F in July and August. Pool weather is mid-May through late September. The city itself stays cool even in heat — the walls and stone keep it shaded.
Tortelli lucchesi (meat-filled tortelli in ragù), farro soup, garmugia (spring vegetable soup), buccellato (sweet anise bread to dunk in coffee), and the Colline Lucchesi DOC red. Our favourites: Buca di Sant'Antonio, La Pecora Nera, Locanda dell'Angelo, All'Olivo, and Trattoria da Leo for casual lunch.
Walk or bicycle the walls, the Torre Guinigi climb, the Puccini Festival in summer, vineyard tastings in the Lucchesia hills, cooking classes at a Lucchesia villa, marble-quarry tours at Carrara, beach days at Forte dei Marmi, and Pisa in the afternoon when you've had enough of art.
Pisa (30 min), Forte dei Marmi (30 min), Florence (1 hr), Cinque Terre (90 min), the Carrara marble quarries (45 min), Siena and Chianti (2 hr).
Not inside the walls — Lucca is walkable end to end and the centro storico is a limited traffic zone (ZTL). Outside the walls (Lucchesia villas, Versilia, day trips) a car is essential, or arrange private driver service through our concierge.
Our villas near Lucca run from €7,495 a week for four-bedroom Villa Frantoio to €23,200 a week for twelve-bedroom Borgo Bernardini. The entire Coselli estate, which sleeps 101, starts at €94,000 a week.
Borgo Bernardini and Villa Controni each sleep 24. For weddings and very large groups, the Coselli estate brings several villas together with room for 101 guests.
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