Walking the streets of Lucca is like reading the pages of a history book, and the atmosphere of this illustrious old town is made unique by its ring of impressive ramparts, today a luscious green park preserving the city from…modern age!

A Roman colony from 180 BC, it flourished in the Middle Ages as a rich, independent city state.

Lucca silk trade invaded both Oriental and Western markets. The Lucchese established merchants’ colonies everywhere, the bankers lent money even to princes and emperors.

Later the city suffered from some short periods of foreign dominion, yet basically survived as Republic and maintained its independence from Florence until the 19th century.

By the 16th century, as its dynamic merchants slowly turned into more sedentary land owners, the city, as a well fed silkworm spinned around itself its third (and last) circle of walls.

The construction of its massive ramparts took over a century, after that Lucca still enjoyed a long period of peace and stability.

By the beginning of the 19th century the wide ramparts were transformed into an aerial avenue, where the Lucchese enjoy to spend their free time.

And it is from the ramparts that we will start our walk in Lucca. From here we can catch the loveliest views of the city with on one sode the distant Tuscan hills and on the other, Romanesque bell towers and squares.

Our guide will meet you at the bus terminal (it takes slightly more than an hour from Florence bus station) and we will proceed on foot at the discovery of this extremely well preserved old town.

The Roman city is still evident in the grid-like regularity of the streets, and especially in the Piazza Anfiteatro, where medieval houses cluster around the oval site of a Roman amphiteater.

Yet it is above all the wealthy 11th, 12th, 13th centuries that have left their mark upon the city. Along the streets, narrow and straight, rise medieval palaces and towers.

In particular the Torre Guinigi, bizarrely…