Tuscany
Lucca
Lucca is unusually legible because successive cities were built on top of one another without erasing the earlier plan. Roman streets and an amphitheatre still shape the centre; medieval pilgrimage and silk wealth produced churches and merchant towers; a small republic invested heavily in Renaissance fortifications; and those walls later became one of Italy’s most loved urban parks. The route follows that long conversion from defence and trade to civic identity.
Stories in Lucca
- Piazza San Michele — The Roman Forum Never Quite Left
- Piazza dell’Anfiteatro — Housing Built Inside a Roman Arena
- San Martino Cathedral — Pilgrims, Relics and the Via Francigena
- Guinigi Tower — Merchant Families Compete in Stone
- Via Fillungo — The Street That Silk Money Built Around
- The Ancient Mint — A Republic Manufactures Trust
- San Frediano — A Medieval City Expands Beyond Its Roman Box
- Renaissance Walls — The Fortress That Became Lucca’s Park