Four kilometres of tree-lined ramparts to walk or cycle around the city
Lucca is one of the few Italian cities to have kept its Renaissance walls intact. Built between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they run for 4.2 kilometres around the historic centre, with eleven bastions and six gates. They were never attacked; their only real test came in 1812, when they saved the city from a flood of the Serchio.
In the nineteenth century Maria Luisa of Bourbon turned the top of the walls into a public promenade lined with plane trees, lime trees and chestnuts. Today it is the Lucchesi's favourite park, where people walk, jog, cycle and picnic, looking down on the roofs, gardens and towers of the city on one side and the hills on the other.
Tip: hire a bicycle at one of the shops near the gates and ride the full loop in about twenty minutes; at sunset the light on the bastions is beautiful. Inside some bastions there are vaulted rooms that host exhibitions.
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