What to book in Lucca (hardly anything)
Unlike Pisa, Lucca has no monument with time slots that sell out weeks ahead. The towers, the Duomo, Puccini's house and Palazzo Pfanner are paid for at the entrance or at a nearby ticket office. There are only a few decisions to make before you set off:
- Lucca Visit Card or single tickets? The maths is further down: up to four sites you spend less with single tickets, from the fifth the card pays off.
- Bike or no bike? For the walls, yes. You can hire one on the spot, or book a bike tour if you want a ready-made route.
- Just Lucca, or Pisa too? Lucca is half an hour by train from Pisa: on a long day you can see both, but Lucca deserves at least a full afternoon.
The only bookings you really need are for experiences outside the city (a hot-air balloon flight, a cooking class) and, at the end of October, Lucca Comics & Games.
Things to do in Lucca in a day
A typical day starting from Florence by train. Train times are a guide only: check the ones for your day.
- Florence Santa Maria Novelladirect regional train to Lucca, about 1 h 20, €8.90; departures roughly every hour
- Lucca station, Piazza Ricasolia few minutes on foot and you are inside the walls
- Duomo di San MartinoVolto Santo and Ilaria del Carretto; on Sundays the Cathedral only opens at 12:00, so swap it with the walls
- Puccini's birthplacebuy your ticket first at the Piazza Cittadella 5 ticket office; closed on Tuesdays out of season
- The walls by bikethe full loop is 4.2 km: allow an hour with stops
- Piazza dell'Anfiteatrolunch in the surrounding streets
- Torre Guinigi230 steps up to the holm oaks; in winter the towers close early, so move them to the morning
- Torre delle Ore (Clock Tower)207 wooden steps beside the clock mechanism
- San Frediano and Palazzo Pfannerthe garden is open from 15 March to 31 December
- Train to Florencecheck the time of the direct train: you reach Florence at around 20:00
If you are coming from Pisa, set off an hour later and follow the same loop. In winter it makes sense to move the towers to the morning and leave the walls until last, before it gets dark.
The walls by bike
The walls, built between the 16th and 17th centuries, still encircle the whole centre. Along the top runs a tree-lined promenade 4.2 km long, closed to cars and open to walkers and cyclists. By bike it is the simplest way to understand the shape of the city: from the bastions you look inwards, over roofs and towers, and outwards, across the plain. Allow an hour with stops.
Bikes can be hired from many shops near Piazza Santa Maria and the city gates, and there is also a bike-sharing scheme. Prices vary from one shop to the next, so ask before you sign. If you would rather book ahead, GetYourGuide has a full-day hire from €20. There is also a 4-hour self-guided tour from €18, and a self-guided route from Lucca to Pisa from €29 for anyone who wants to cycle across the plain as well.
Partner prices change: we check them regularly, but the price you see when you book is the one that counts. For more bike and Vespa routes in Tuscany, see cycling and Vespa tours.
The Duomo di San Martino and the Volto Santo
The Duomo is the religious heart of the city. Inside is the Volto Santo, the wooden crucifix venerated for centuries, kept in a small marble temple attributed to Matteo Civitali. Then there is the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, carved by Jacopo della Quercia after her death in 1405, and Tintoretto's Last Supper.
The Cathedral museum complex sells tickets directly at each site, with no booking:
| Ticket | Full | Reduced |
|---|---|---|
| Combined: Cathedral, bell tower, Museum, Santi Giovanni e Reparata | €10 | €8 |
| Cathedral with Ilaria del Carretto | €5 | €3 |
| Bell tower (217 steps) | €3 | — |
| Cathedral Museum | €4 | — |
| Santi Giovanni e Reparata (baptistery and archaeological area) | €4 | — |
The reduced price applies to students up to 25, over-65s, teachers and groups of at least 10. A family pays €20, and under-6s go in free. The Cathedral is open Monday to Saturday from 09:30 to 18:00 and on Sundays from 12:00 to 18:00. The bell tower, museum and San Giovanni are open every day from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry half an hour before closing. Hours change for services and around the feast of Santa Croce in mid-September, when the Luminara, the procession of the Volto Santo, is normally held on the evening of the 13th.
If you have time, take the €10 combined ticket: it adds the bell tower, with its 360-degree view, and the archaeological area of San Giovanni e Reparata. If you only want to see the Volto Santo and Ilaria, €5 is enough.
The towers: Guinigi and the Clock Tower
Two of Lucca's towers can be climbed, a few minutes' walk from each other.
Torre Guinigi. It is 44.25 metres high, and 230 steps take you up to the roof garden at the top, where centuries-old holm oaks grow, looked after by the Botanical Garden staff. You climb in time slots, and at peak times your stay at the top may be limited.
Torre delle Ore (Clock Tower). At about 50 metres it is the tallest in the city. You climb 207 steps on the original wooden staircase, beside the hand-wound clock mechanism. The city council bought it in 1490.
According to the latest council prices, each tower costs €8 (reduced €6.50) and the combined ticket with the Botanical Garden costs €19. Guides quoting €4–6 are out of date. Opening hours change with the seasons: in winter the towers close early, generally at around 16:00 on weekdays. Online sales on the council website are not always active: if you want to fix a time, call 0583 48090 or buy at the ticket office.
Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
Lucca's most photographed square takes the shape of the Roman amphitheatre it is built on. The 1st–2nd century AD arena could hold about 10,000 spectators and now lies about 3 metres below street level. Of the tiers, only the shape remains: the square is an ellipse enclosed by houses. The square as we see it today is the work of the architect Lorenzo Nottolini, who from 1830 had the centre cleared of buildings. It is open and free: come early in the morning to see it empty, or at lunchtime to eat.
Puccini's birthplace
Giacomo Puccini was born at Corte San Lorenzo 9, and today the house is a museum run by the Fondazione Puccini. You cannot buy the ticket at the door: you buy it at the ticket office and bookshop at Piazza Cittadella 5, a few metres away.
- Prices: €9 full; €7 reduced (under-18s, over-65s, students up to 26); free up to age 8; family €17 (2 adults and one child aged 8 to 17, €3 for each additional child).
- Hours: from 1 April to 30 September, every day from 09:30 to 19:00. In October and from February to March, 09:30 to 17:30, closed on Tuesdays. From November to January, Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 14:00 and Friday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00, closed on Tuesdays and on 25 December.
- Two-way discount: a ticket for the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago gets you a discount at the museum, and vice versa.
If you love opera, the Puccini Festival is held in summer on Lake Massaciuccoli, in Versilia.
The Lucca Visit Card: is it really worth it?
The council's card comes in two versions: Incanto, €29 for 3 days, and Meraviglia, €48 for 10 days. Anyone aged at least 16 can buy it, and up to three accompanied under-18s go in free. It covers Torre Guinigi, the Clock Tower, Puccini's house, the Botanical Garden, the national museums of Palazzo Mansi and Villa Guinigi, the Cathedral museum and archaeological complex, the San Frediano complex with its bell tower, the Domus Romana, the Museo della Zecca (the mint museum) and the Barsanti and Matteucci engine museum. You can buy it at the sites' ticket offices or online.
The maths, at full price:
- two towers (€16) and Puccini's house (€9) come to €25: you spend less without the card;
- add the Botanical Garden, using the €19 combined ticket for the towers and the garden, plus Puccini, and you reach €28: one euro below the card;
- a fifth site is enough, for example the Cathedral museum or Palazzo Mansi, and the €29 card pays off.
For a couple with two teenage children the saving is clear, because the children go in free on an adult's card. If you are only seeing one tower and the Duomo, forget it and pay for single tickets.
Beyond the walls
Villa Reale di Marlia. A historic villa with a park outside the city, at Marlia: without a car it is awkward to reach. Tiqets sells entry to the park and museums with an audio guide from €18. The ticket cannot be refunded and still has very few reviews, so check the opening days before you buy.
Palazzo Pfanner. A Baroque palazzo with an 18th-century Italian garden, near the walls and San Frediano. The garden and museum cost €10 (reduced €8, free under 10). It is open from 15 March to 31 December: from January to mid-March it is closed. The site mentions renovation work in progress, so check before you go.
By balloon or at the stove. A hot-air balloon flight of about an hour over the countryside leaves from Lucca, from €300 (see hot-air balloon flights). There is also a 4½-hour Tuscan cooking class on an organic farm, with wine, from €125 (see cooking classes).
Villa Reale di Marlia: Park & Museums Entry Ticket + Audio Guide
(2 reviews) from €18
Book on Tiqets
Lucca: Hands-On Tuscan Cooking Class with Wine at a Bio Farm
(39 reviews) from €125
Book on GetYourGuideFor a first visit to the city with a guide, the 2-hour walking tour on GetYourGuide starts at €15 and has almost 2,000 reviews.
Lucca tours and experiences on GetYourGuide
Lucca Comics & Games and other events
Lucca Comics & Games, the comics and gaming fair, is held every year between late October and the first days of November, spanning All Saints' Day. Tickets, for one or more days, are sold in advance on TicketOne and there is a daily cap on admissions. Before going in you have to collect a wristband at the welcome points, unless it was sent to your home. On those days the city is jam-packed, the trains from Florence and Pisa are extremely crowded and the towers and museums may change their hours. If you are not going for the fair, pick another week.
In summer, between June and July, the Lucca Summer Festival brings open-air concerts, mainly to Piazza Napoleone. In mid-September comes the feast of Santa Croce with the Luminara.
Getting to Lucca
- From Florence by train: the direct regional train from Santa Maria Novella takes about 1 hour 20 minutes and costs €8.90, with departures roughly every hour. Trains via Pisa take 1 hour 45 minutes or more and cost more: avoid them.
- From Pisa: from Pisa Centrale it takes 27–35 minutes and costs €4.10, with a train roughly every half-hour. They also stop at Pisa San Rossore, near the Tower.
- From the station: the station is in Piazza Ricasoli, just outside the walls. A few minutes on foot and you are in the centre.
- By bus: Autolinee Toscane links Lucca with Florence (from Porta al Prato–Leopolda) and with Pisa Centrale.
- To the sea: Lucca to Viareggio by train takes 20 minutes and costs €4.10.
Inside the walls you need nothing: you get around on foot or by bike. From here you can carry on to Versilia, head back to Florence or look for more ideas among our day trips and the Tuscan borghi, the hill towns and villages of the region.