Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(Via Fillungo; adult/reduced €6/5; 9.30am-6.30pm summer)
Break from the boutiques of Via
Fillungo with a hike up the 207 wooden steps of Lucca's 13th-century clock tower - at
50m tall, the highest of the city's 130 medieval towers. Views from the top are fabulous.
Legend has it the tower is inhabited by the ghost of Lucida Mansi, a Lucchese lass who
sold her soul to the devil in exchange for remaining young and beautiful for three decades.
On 14 August 1623 the devil came after her to pay her debt, only for Licida to climb up
the clock tower to try and stop time. The devil caught her and took her soul.
Palazzo Pfanner
MAP
PALACE
GOOGLE MAP
(
www.palazzopfanner.it
; Via degli Asili 33; palace or garden adult/reduced €4.50/4, both €6/5;
10am-6pm summer)
Fire the romantic in you with a stroll around this beautiful 17th-century
palace where parts of
Portrait of a Lady
(1996) starring Nicole Kidman and John
Malkovich were shot. Its baroque-styled garden - the only one of substance within the
city walls - is irresistible with its ornamental pond, belle Epoque lemon house and 18th-
century statues of Greek gods posing between potted lemon trees.
Climb the grand outdoor staircase to the frescoed and furnished
piano nobile
(main re-
ception room), home to Felix Pfanner, an Austrian émigré who first brought beer to Italy -
and brewed it in the mansion's cellars from 1846 until 1929. From the copperpots strung
above the hearth in the kitchen to the dining-room table laid for lunch, the rooms vividly
evoke daily life in an early-18th- century Lucchese
palazzo
(mansion)
.
In summer watch
out for the lovely chamber-music concerts that Palazzo Pfanner hosts.
City Wall
Lucca's monumental
mura
(wall) was built around the old city in the 16th and 17th cen-
turies and remains in almost perfect condition due to the long periods of peace the city has
enjoyed. Twelve metres high and 4km long, the ramparts are crowned with a tree-lined
footpath that looks down on the
centro storico
and out towards the Apuane Alps.
This path is the favourite Lucchesi location for a
passeggiata
(traditional evening
stroll), be it on foot, bicycle or inline skate. Children's playgrounds, swings and picnic
tables beneath shady plane trees add a buzz of activity to Baluardo San Regolo, Baluardo
San Salvatore and Baluardo Santa Croce - three of the 11 bastions studding the way - and
older kids kick balls around on the vast green lawns of Baluardo San Donato.
CITY WALLS
Cattedrale di San Martino
CATHEDRAL
