Lucca

Via Cenami leads from the duomo north to the Torre delle Ore , the city’s clock tower since 1471. From here, Via Fillungo cuts through Lucca’s luxury shopping district. San Frediano is again Pisan-Romanesque, featuring a magnificent thirteenth-century exterior mosaic of Christ in Majesty , with the Apostles gathered below. The interior (Mon-Sat 7.30am-12.30pm & 3-6pm, Sun 9am-1pm & 3-6pm except during services) lives up to the facade’s promise - a delicately lit, hall-like basilica. Facing the door is the Fonta Lustrale , a huge twelfth-century font executed by three unknown craftsmen. Set behind the font is an Annunciation by Andrea della Robbia, festooned with trailing garlands of ceramic fruit. The left-hand of the two rear chapels houses the incorrupt body of St Zita (died 1278), a Lucchese maidservant who achieved sainthood from a white lie: she used to give bread from her household to the poor, and when challenged one day by her boss as to the contents of her apron, she replied “only roses and flowers” - into which the bread was transformed. She is commemorated on April 27 by a flower market outside the church. Lucca’s best frescoes - Amico Aspertini ’s sixteenth-century scenes of the Arrival of the Volto Santo , the Life of St Augustine and The Miracle of St Frediano - occupy the second chapel of the left aisle. Frediano, an Irish monk, is said to have brought Christianity to Lucca in the sixth century and is depicted here saving the city from flood.

A short distance south, at Via degli Asili 33, is the Palazzo Pfanner (daily 10am-6pm; gardens L3000/¬1.55, tour of house L3000/¬1.55, both L5000/¬2.58). The palazzo, housing a textiles collection, is less interesting than its rear loggia and exquisite statued gardens with fountain. They can be seen to good effect from the city walls just nearby, which also yield a good overview of another fine church, Sant’Agostino .

East of San Frediano is the remarkable Piazza Anfiteatro . This ramshackle circuit of medieval buildings, built on the foundations of the Roman amphitheatre that once stood here (arches and columns of which can still be discerned), is now ringed by cafés. South past a covered market looms the Torre Guinigi , the fifteenth-century home of Lucca’s leading family and one of the strangest sights in town: its battlemented tower is surmounted, 44m up, by a holm oak whose roots have grown into the room below. You can climb the tower from Via Sant’Andrea (daily: March-Sept 9am-7.30pm; Oct 10am-6pm; Nov-Feb 10am-4.30pm; L5000/¬2.58).

Running from north to south crossways town is a canal and Via del Fosso, crossways which is the church of San Francesco , fronted by a relatively simple deception and adjoining a crumbling brick convent. Behind the church is Lucca’s key collection of painting, sculpture, furniture and applied arts, the Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi , housed in the family’s much-restored mansion (Tues-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 9am-2pm; L4000/¬2.06). Its lower floor has mainly sculpture and archeological finds, with numerous Romanesque pieces and works by della Quercia and Matteo Civitali. Upstairs are lots of big sixteenth-century paintings and more impressive works by primeval Lucchese and Sienese masters, as well as fine Renaissance offerings from such as Fra’ Bartolommeo.

It needs a double-take before you realize why the Duomo looks odd. The building is fronted by a severely assymetric deception - its right-hand arch and loggias are squeezed by the belltower, which was already in place from an early building. Nonetheless, little detracts from its overall grandeur, created by the repetition of tiny columns and loggias and by the stunning atrium , whose bas-reliefs are some of the finest sculptures in the city. The carvings over the left-hand door - a Deposition , Annunciation, Nativity and Adoration of the aggregation - are by Nicola Pisano . Other panels display a symbolic labyrinth, a Tree of Life (with Adam and Eve at the bottom and Christ at the top), a bestiary of grotesques and the months of the year. The interior (Mon-Sat 7am-6.30pm, Sun 9.30am-6.45pm) is best known for the contribution of Matteo Civitali (1435-1501), who is represented here most famously by the Tempietto , a gilt-and-marble octagon halfway down the church. Some fanatically intense acts of devotion are performed in front of it, directed at the Volto Santo (Holy Face), a cedarwood crucifix with bulging eyes popularly said to be a true effigy of Christ carved by Nicodemus, an eyewitness to the Crucifixion. Legend has it that the Volto Santo came to Lucca of its own volition, first journeying by boat from the Holy Land, and then brought by oxen guided by divine will. The effigy attracted pilgrims from all over Europe: King William Rufus of England used to swear by it ( “Per sanctum vultum de Lucca!” ). The Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (1410), originally situated in the north transept, is now in the room to the south following lengthy restoration (Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.45pm, Sat 9.30am-6.30pm, Sun 9-9.50am, 11.30-11.50am & 1-6pm; L3000/¬1.55; joint ticket with Museo della Cattedrale and San Giovanni L8000/¬4.13). Considered the masterpiece of Sienese sculptor Jacopo della Quercia , it consists of a raised ambo and the sculpted body of Ilaria, second wife of Paolo Guinigi, one of Lucca’s medieval big shots. In a touching, almost sentimental gesture, the artist has carved the family dog at her feet. Also within the room is a superb Madonna Enthroned by Ghirlandaio .

Occupying a converted twelfth-century building opposite the duomo is the Museo della Cattedrale (daily 10am-6pm; Nov-April Mon-Fri closes 5pm; L6000/¬3.10; joint ticket with Tomb of Ilaria and San Giovanni L8000/¬4.13). This contains some unnerving Romanesque stone heads, human and equine and, in room II on the upper floor, a reliquary from Limoges decorated with stories from the life of St Thomas à Becket alongside the Croce dei Pisani , an ornate fifteenth-century gold crucifix. West of the duomo is the church of San Giovanni (same hours; L2000/¬1.03; joint ticket with Tomb of Ilaria and Museo della Cattedrale L8000/¬4.13). This was Lucca’s cathedral until 715, and excavations here have unearthed a tangle of remains, from Roman mosaics to traces of a Carolingian church.

Bike rental Cicli Barbetti, Via Anfiteatro 23; or Cicli Bizzari on Piazza Santa Maria (L4000/¬2.06 per hour). Hospital Campo di Marte, in Via dell’Ospedale (tel 0583.9701).

Internet access There’s a cybercafé near San Frediano at Via Battisti 58 (L3000/¬1.55 for 15min), or a change office at Via Pescheria 7, just off San Michele (Mon-Sat 1-7pm; L8000/¬4.13 for 30min, or 15min free if you change the equivalent of US$200).

Lost property c/o Comune di Lucca, Via Battisti 10 (tel 0583.442.388).

Parking Outside the walls, parking is free for all; inside, only hotel customers can park for free.

Police The Questura is at Via Cavour 38 (tel 0583.4551).

Post office Via Vallisneri 2 (Mon-Fri 8.15am-7pm, Sat 8.15am-12.30pm).

Lucca has some high-quality restaurants . Local specialities include zuppa di farro , a thick soup prefabricated with spelt (a type of grain) and capretto , mountain goat, often roasted. Puccini , opposite the composer’s house at Corte San Lorenzo 1 (tel 0583.316.116; closed Tues & Wed lunch in summer; all day Tues in winter), has a light touch and classy approach to its exquisite pasta and especially good fish dishes: this is top choice for a lunch to remember, or a romantic dinner date. Da Giulio in Pelleria , Via della Conce 45 (tel 0583.55.948; closed Sun & Mon) is a lively trattoria always packed in the evenings - the food is not exceptional, but the region is. Da Leo , Via Tegrini 1 (closed Sun), is a locals’ haunt with solid Tuscan cooking; and Da Guido , Via Cesare Battisti 28 (closed Sun) is a heartwarming place with much joviality and truly unbeatable prices. Lucca’s most famous café-bar is Caffè di Simo at Via Fillungo 58, once Puccini’s favourite haunt and still with an appealing turn-of-the-century ambience. Of the bars around Piazza San Michele, Casali at no. 40 is the most alluring. The town’s food shops are equally good. Caniparoli in Via San Paolina is a wonderful chocolate shop; La Cacioteca, Via Fillungo 242, sells a wide variety of cheeses; Forno Amedeo Giusti, Via Santa Lucia 18, is the town’s top bakery, with delicious fresh focaccia ; Pellegrini on Piazza San Michele has pizza by the slice; and Pasticceria Taddeucci on the same square has a stunning interior of wood-panelling and mosaic tiles to match its selection of cakey delights.

The Lucchese Settembre festival features plenty of activity throughout September, centred on a candlelit procession on the 13th, when the bejewelled Volto Santo is carried through the streets from San Frediano to the duomo. Consult the tourist office for details of affiliated September events, such as classical concerts (including performances of a Puccini opera) at the intimate, four-tiered Teatro Comunale in Piazza del Giglio, as well as jazz happenings and art exhibitions. Another key musical event is the summertime Estate Musicale Lucchese , often featuring big-name international stars performing in Piazza Anfiteatro.