Lucca villa holidays,
your questions answered

Pisa (PSA) is the closest, about 30 minutes by car from Lucca and from our villas on the Coselli estate just east of town. Florence (FLR) is about 50 minutes away. Most flights from the US connect through a European hub into one of the two, or land in Rome. A private transfer from Pisa airport to the villas was about €140 last season; from Rome, a van for seven was about €1,150.

By train, Pisa is 20 to 30 minutes and Florence about an hour and 20 minutes, and Lucca station is a five-minute walk from the walls. By car from the villas, the Versilia beaches are about 30 minutes, Florence about an hour and the Cinque Terre an hour to an hour and a half.

At the Coselli villas, check-in is between 4 and 5 p.m., and the keyholder meets you at the gate. Message them on WhatsApp when you leave the airport, and again if you are running late. Follow the written directions we send with your trip documents rather than relying only on Google Maps: the last stretch winds through the village of Vorno and the estate gate is easy to miss.

If you stay in a villa in the hills, yes, or a driver. The villas are about 10 minutes from the walls, and you will want a way home after dinner and for day trips. The concierge can book drivers for airport runs, dinners in town and full days out, so you can skip the car entirely if nobody wants to drive.

Mostly no. Much of the center is a limited traffic zone (ZTL), and cameras fine unauthorized cars automatically, often months later. Park in one of the public lots just outside the walls, such as Parcheggio Carducci, Mazzini or Palatucci, and walk in through a gate. It takes five minutes and saves a lot of grief.

Yes, and you should. The tree-lined walls make a flat four-kilometer loop around the old town, with bike rentals by the gates, and a lap is a must on day one. From town, a cycle path follows the Serchio River north toward Ponte a Moriano, flat and easy enough for children. The concierge also arranges guided rides, including a full day cycling to the seafront at Viareggio for lunch.

Drive to La Spezia, park there and take the train along the coast, because parking in the five villages is very limited. If nobody wants to drive, a seven-seat van with a driver for up to eight hours was about €1,050 last season. For a gentler day, take a boat from Viareggio or La Spezia to Lerici, Tellaro and Portovenere with a swim stop and lunch on board.

Florence's center is also a ZTL. Park at Villa Costanza, right off the motorway, and take the tram into town, or use the Parterre garage or the one under Santa Maria Novella station. Book the Uffizi and the Accademia ahead, and remember that Michelangelo's David is at the Accademia, not the Uffizi.

For a couple or a short stay, inside the walls is charming. For a family or a group staying a week, take a villa in the hills about 10 minutes away: you get a pool, a long table under the pergola and room to spread out, and you come into town for lunch, shopping and an evening walk on the walls. That is what we recommend for most of our clients.

Six independent villas on one historic estate in Capannori, just east of Lucca: Villa Frantoio sleeps 8, Casa Felice Matteucci 14, Casa del Fattore 15, Villa Lenka 16, and Borgo Bernardini and Villa Controni 24 each. Each villa has its own gate, garden, kitchen and private pool, there are shared tennis and volleyball courts, and an on-site concierge team. Rented together as the Coselli Estate, they sleep 101.

From €7,495 a week for four-bedroom Villa Frantoio to around €30,000 a week in high summer for the 12-bedroom villas: for 2027, Villa Controni is €29,500 and Borgo Bernardini €31,000 for a week in late June or July. The whole Coselli estate starts at €94,000 a week. Because breakfast and one meal a day are cooked for you, the food budget is lower than at most villas.

Borgo Bernardini and Villa Controni each sleep 24, and families love the shared tennis and volleyball courts between them. Every villa on the estate has its own private pool. For 14 to 16 guests, look at Casa Felice Matteucci, Casa del Fattore and Villa Lenka. We recommend Lucca to multigenerational families more than anywhere else in Tuscany: the town is small enough to explore, the day trips are easy and the beach is 30 minutes away.

Villa Controni has a ground-floor bedroom with an en-suite bathroom set up for a guest in a wheelchair. Tell us exactly what you need and we will check the details with the estate before you book.

Yes. The Coselli estate has its own wedding and events team, and rented as a whole it sleeps 101, so the whole wedding party stays on site. Smaller celebrations work beautifully at a single villa, with the chef cooking for the group and live music or an opera evening arranged for the night.

Yes, at the Coselli villas a chef is included for breakfast and one meal a day, six days a week (the chef's day off is Wednesday). You choose lunch or dinner each day and pay only for the food. It is about as close to all-inclusive as an Italian villa gets, and large families give it some of our best feedback.

Last season the fixed food prices were €15 a person for breakfast and €45 or €55 a person for the main meal. The Classic menu (€45) is a starter, main course and dessert; the Deluxe Italian menu (€55) adds a first course, usually pasta, and a side dish; and the Buffet Italiano (€55) is two starters, two pastas, a main and dessert. All three include water, soft drinks and a bottle of wine for every four guests, and can be meat or fish. The whole table has the same menu, and you choose the first two in advance so the chef can shop.

Lucca on a plate: tordelli with ragù, Garfagnana spelt soup, pappa al pomodoro, Tuscan beans with sausage, peposo (beef braised in Chianti with black pepper), plus Italian favorites like lasagna and Chef Federico's carbonara. The menu changes every year, and after the first two dinners you plan the rest of the week with the chef directly.

Yes. Gluten-free, dairy-free and vegetarian menus are available, and the chef adapts the group menu for allergies and intolerances. Tell us early and be specific, and we confirm it in writing with the concierge before you arrive.

Yes. The full-menu class starts at 10 a.m. or 4 p.m., you cook fresh pasta and a Tuscan meal with the chef, and then you sit down and eat it as lunch or dinner. There is also a pizza class and a gelato class. Pasta and pizza classes are for ages 10 and up; gelato is for everyone.

Inside the walls: Buca di Sant'Antonio, one of the oldest dining rooms in town and listed in the Michelin Guide, is the place for tordelli on your first night. Giglio, in an 18th-century palazzo by the theater and also in the Michelin Guide, gives the old recipes a modern touch (check its hours). Gigliola, the Giglio team's bakery and bistro, is our pick for lunch, and Gino Frutta & Bistrot is a fruit shop, deli and wine bar in one. Just outside: Al Tambellini dal 1870 for Lucchese home cooking, and Osteria di Lammari in Capannori, a few minutes from the Coselli villas.

Tordelli lucchesi (meat-filled pasta under a slow ragù), zuppa di farro (Garfagnana spelt soup), garmugia (a spring soup you only see in April and May), torta coi becchi (a sweet chard tart with a pinched crust), and buccellato, the aniseed and raisin bread that Taddeucci in Piazza San Michele has baked since 1881. From October, look for necci (chestnut crepes with ricotta), castagnaccio and the new olive oil poured over warm bread.

Yes, especially on weekends and during festivals. Many restaurants have limited hours and close for holidays in winter, and the small places fill up with locals. We or the villa concierge book your tables before you arrive.

The hills around Lucca have two small appellations, Colline Lucchesi and Montecarlo, and almost no crowds. Book a tasting at Tenuta di Valgiano, a biodynamic pioneer, at Fattoria Sardi just outside the walls, which also has a seasonal restaurant, or at one of the Montecarlo estates. In town, Enoteca Vanni keeps tens of thousands of bottles in medieval cellars; ask for a tour. If you would rather stay by the pool, a private sommelier can bring the wines to the villa.

Our guests' favorite day out from the Coselli estate. You drive vintage Fiat 500s in a little convoy behind a local guide: first to Nottolini's 19th-century aqueduct at the Parco delle Parole d'Oro, then through olive groves and vineyards to the hill town of Montecarlo for the fortress and the tiny Teatro dei Rassicurati, and finally to a family farm for an olive oil demonstration, a wine tasting and a light lunch. It takes about five hours and needs at least three cars (up to nine people, three per car).

Walk or bike the walls, climb the Guinigi Tower with the oak trees on its roof, have a coffee in the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, and see the cathedral of San Martino and the white facade of San Michele in Foro. In the evening, catch the short Puccini concert at 7 p.m. in the church of San Giovanni. Out of town, the great villa gardens of the Lucchesia, the Serchio Valley and the beaches of Versilia are all within 30 minutes.

Puccini was born in Lucca in 1858. The Puccini e la sua Lucca festival holds a short concert of arias in the church of San Giovanni every evening at 7 p.m. from spring to autumn, and his birthplace near Piazza Cittadella is now the Puccini Museum. In summer, the Puccini Festival stages his operas in an open-air theater on the lake at Torre del Lago, about half an hour away; the 2026 season ran July 17 to September 5. For a private night, the concierge can bring a pianist, cellist, flautist, soprano and baritone to the villa for a two-hour opera dinner.

Villa Reale di Marlia, the grandest, with a green theater of clipped hedges where Paganini played for Napoleon's sister Elisa; allow two hours, and it is open daily from early spring to late October. Villa Torrigiani in Camigliano, with its theatrical Baroque facade, hidden water jets and the sunken Garden of Flora. Villa Grabau in San Pancrazio, a favorite of serious gardeners. Check opening days before you go, and go in April or May for the azaleas and roses.

Pisa (30 minutes), Florence (an hour), the Cinque Terre (park in La Spezia and take the train), the marble quarries of Carrara, Forte dei Marmi and Pietrasanta on the coast, and Siena, San Gimignano or Volterra for a longer day. North of town, the Garfagnana is a different Tuscany: the Devil's Bridge at Borgo a Mozzano is 25 minutes away and the hill town of Barga about 45. See our day trips from Lucca.

It is one of the best towns in Italy for children: flat, car-free, with the walls to bike around and the beach 30 minutes away. At the villas, the concierge arranges a magician for the evening, babysitters, family tours of Lucca with a guide just for the children, and gelato-making classes. Older children can go up in a hot air balloon at dawn (from age 8), sometimes taking off from the villa lawn. More ideas in our guide to things to do with kids in Lucca.

Yes. Flights leave at dawn, around 5 or 6 a.m., when the air is calmest, and last about an hour over vineyards, forests and hill towns, finishing with local wine on landing. Weather permitting, the balloon can take off from the Coselli estate itself; otherwise from a field about 15 minutes away. The minimum age is 8.

Massages by the pool (from about €100 a treatment), laundry returned within 24 hours on weekdays, live music for an aperitivo, a costumed 19th-century picnic with a photographer, guided hikes in the Garfagnana chestnut woods, private boat days on the coast and even a helicopter flight. Ask us for the full activity list when you book.

May, June and September: warm days, open gardens and comfortable evenings. July and August are hot, often over 30°C (the mid-80s to 90s°F), which is when a villa with a pool earns its keep. October and November are for food: chestnuts, porcini and the new olive oil. The best villas book a year ahead for June and September.

The Lucca Summer Festival brings big-name concerts to the walls and piazzas in July. On the evening of September 13, the Luminara di Santa Croce lights the old town with thousands of candles; arrive by 4 or 5 p.m. and park at Carducci, Mazzini or Palatucci, or have a driver take you. On the third weekend of most months there is an antiques market around the cathedral. And in late October, Lucca Comics & Games takes over the entire walled city (October 28 to November 1 in 2026): fans love it, everyone else should plan around it.

One day sees the walls, the towers and the piazzas. A week in a villa nearby, the usual Saturday-to-Saturday stay, leaves time for Pisa, Florence, the coast, a wine tasting and long dinners at home with the chef.

Lucca is smaller, flatter and calmer than Florence, with a complete set of Renaissance walls you can walk or bike, and the sea is 30 minutes away, which Chianti cannot offer. The villa country around it is one of the least crowded corners of Tuscany, and with a chef included at the Coselli villas, it is the easiest week in Italy for a big family. Read more in why we love Lucca, and see all our villas near Lucca.