Travel: walking the walls in lovely, leafy Lucca

As you walk along the impressive city walls of the Tuscan city of Lucca you can get a real sense of the turbulent history of the northern part of Italy before the country was unified in 1870. This was a land of powerful and wealthy city-states, of areas under the control of the pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. The fact that the walls are among the most impressive in all of Italy is a testament to the merchants of Lucca. Rich from their Alpine trade routes to the north, they used their wealth to bribe marauding armies to bypass the city.

It is fascinating to think that Venice, Pisa, Genoa and even Amalfi were all maritime powers at the time. Lucca, founded by the Etruscans, became a Roman colony before enjoying nearly five centuries as an independent republic – until Napoleon arrived. The city escaped second World War bombing thus leaving much of its beautiful Romanesque-Pisan architecture intact.

In the early 19th century someone came up with the brilliant idea of converting the walls into a tree-lined promenade, affording both locals and tourists 4km of delightful walking or cycling, with views over the medieval city with its terracotta rooftops inwards, and of the spectacular Apuan Alps outwards. Strolling the walls in the early evening, the passeggiata delle mura, is particularly atmospheric with the light filtering through the tall trees.

Lucca is a city of music and romance. Music, because it was the birthplace of both Luigi Boccherini and Giacamo Puccini; romance, because the city is associated with three famous love affairs.

You can listen to a selection of Puccini arias performed every evening by opera students in one of the city's deconsecrated churches. We were lucky enough to catch a special outdoor performance of Madama Butterfly. The house where Puccini grew up is now a museum where you can see his piano and many evocative pictures and letters. Some refer to the notorious love affair between the great composer and Elvira Bonturi, the wife of a prominent merchant.

The second of the love affairs was between the Prince of Denmark and a local noble woman named Maria Maddalena Trenta in the late 17th century. You can see the ornate bedroom where the affair was played out in the sumptuous Palazzo Pfanner, a great villa belonging to the Austrian gentleman who set up one of Italy’s first breweries in 1846. The gardens of the villa are exceptional and worth a visit. When the affair ended, the Prince returned to his home country and became King of Denmark, while Maria entered the convent.

Finally, perhaps most poignantly, when the Duke of Lucca lost his beautiful young bride, Ilaria, he commissioned one of the great Renaissance sculptors, Jacopo della Quercia, to create a marble tomb to immortalise his wife. You can view this extraordinarily tender and beautiful sculpture in Lucca’s Duomo San Martino.

There are 99 churches within the city walls. The most famous after the Duomo are Chiesa San Frediano, with its stunning 14th-century mosaic on the facade, and the exuberantly ornate Pisan-Romanesque San Michele in Foro. Other noteworthy attractions include the Piazza del Mercato located on the site of an ancient Roman amphitheatre and lined with excellent cafes, offering the ideal spot to rest after your sightseeing. The piazza is just off the main pedestrianised shopping street, the Via Fillungo. Another attractive square, the Piazza Napoleone is named after Napoleon’s sister Elisa who ruled Lucca from 1805 to 1815. The Botanical Gardens located right underneath the ramparts feature amazing giant sequoias and a 200-year-old Chinese ginkgo tree.

There are plenty of excursions within easy reach of Lucca. Pisa, with its famous Campo dei Miracoli, is only 15 minutes away by train, although the city of Pisa is nowhere near as attractive as Lucca.

Florence is also an easy day trip and the famous Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio with its Liberty-style (or Art Nouveau) architecture is also only a short train ride away.

During our visit, we stayed in two different hotels, both excellent. Alle Corte Degli Angeli, near the Piazza del Mercato, friendly and with an excellent breakfast, and Hotel Ilaria, located near the ramparts and offering free use of bicycles and free drinks and snacks in the evening.

There is no shortage of good restaurants in Lucca. The olive oil from the surrounding hills is rated very highly in Italy and the local wine, Colline Lucchesi DOC and Montecarlo, are very fine indeed.