Lucca, one of Tuscany’s main towns, is one of the most fascinating and best-preserved medieval cities in Italy: with great honour for its historical and cultural memory, which it carefully preserves, it captivates visitors with its picturesque alleys, squares and characteristic churches.
Is Lucca a day trip from Florence?
One Day in Pisa and Lucca: Day Trip from Florence
The city of Pisa is well connected to other cities in Italy by train. The Leaning Tower of Pisa can easily be visited while traveling by train between Florence and the Cinque Terre. You can also combine Pisa and Lucca together, visiting both on a day trip from Florence. But if you prefer a quieter, more authentic Tuscan experience with rich culinary traditions and charming accommodations, Lucca could be the perfect destination.
Lucca is known for being the ‘city of a hundred churches’. There are plenty of other things to enjoy in Lucca, not least getting your 10,000 steps a day in walking the extensive medieval walls that encircle the city. There’s also a tower with trees growing on top and stunning views. Oh and a beautiful yellow piazza in a former Roman amphitheatre, where you can sit with a glass of wine and watch the world go by.
Piazza dell’Anfiteatro is the prettiest spot in Lucca. Yellow-painted, green-shuttered buildings surround the ovular piazza, creating a sort of terraced effect that opens up at four ‘gateways’ to enter through. It’s sort of a charming walled square within a walled city. If you like the huge square in Siena, you’ll probably like this mini yellow version.
Despite being a small city, Lucca of course has its own duomo, the Cattedrale di San Martino. Unlike Milan and Florence, it’s not got a big dome on it but it does have a great big bell tower, which is only half finished.
What intrigues us, at first glance, is the unusual asymmetry of the facade, which contrasts with the architectural harmony so sought after in the churches of old. But what catches the eye as we approach the Cathedral is the labyrinth carved in stone, accompanied by a Latin inscription referring to the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.
The Sculpted Labyrinth
Seen from a distance, the labyrinth recalls a shooting target.
The circle is about 80 centimeters in diameter and within it, a path, in relief, twists and turns. From the outer limit you have the illusion of being able to quickly reach the center but then it recoils and goes back irremediably, like the coils of a snake.
Alongside the labyrinth, there is an epigraph relating the story of the origins of the pathway which apparently leads nowhere and has no solution.
It is written in Latin and is somewhat cryptic.
“Hic quem Creticus edit Daedalus est laberinthus de quo nullus vadere quivit qui fuit intus ni Theseus gratis Ariane stamine jutus”. (This is the labyrinth constructed by the Cretian Daedalus from which no one was able to exit save Theseus thanks to Ariadne’s thread).
But why carve a symbol that refers to paganism on the portico of a Christian building? This is not unique: the labyrinth has been depicted other times inside European churches, such as on the floor of the Cathedral of Chartres in France. The labyrinth is thought to be a metaphor for the path of Christianity, according to which the only way for man to arrive at salvation is to follow faith just as Theseus followed Ariadne’s thread to get out of the darkness of the labyrinth. However, even after many centuries, its real meaning remains a mystery.
Enjoy your walk in Lucca!
Walking tour in beautiful place .
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