With Pisa ticked off, I set off with Beth and Greg in their rental car for a short journey to Lucca, we arrive at roughly 3pm to the place known as the city with a hundred churches.

The first thing I noticed was the city walls. It reminded me a lot of York, which funny enough I visited for the first time last month (and loved it!). I could already tell I would like Lucca. I didn’t know anything about Lucca until less than 2 weeks before my trip. I researched and researched to make sure there’d be enough time to fit Pisa and Lucca in the same day.

I kept some little notes on things to do (note that it;s always a good thing if you’re researching what to do on a trip). Before deciding what to do we walked around Lucca to get a feel of the place.

The first thing I thought of as we explored Lucca is how I imagine Italy as a country would have looked several centuries back. It had that old romantic, authentic feel to the place. Seeing the locals doing their thing and going about thier day without a care in the world. Maybe they would not have given a second to what might be going on outside of the walls of Lucca.

As you can imagine, we’ve gotten to know each better as the day went on, I think it was around at this point they mentioned that they had an autistic nephew. For those of you that don’t know me well I’ve got a Brother with autism. I don’t know why but whenever I meet someone who has a relative with autism we always end up talking for ages about family etc.

People who have ties with someone with autism understand what you’re talking about compared to others that may not fully understand. I always appreciate people who ask questions about my Brother and try to understand but deep down I feel they don’t fully get a picture when I try to explain.

Saying that, Beth made a good point that there’s a lot more awareness on autism in recent times than there use to be. We must have spent at least a third of the day talking about family. If we weren’t talking about family, we were talking about travel.

Anyway we stopped off at Guinigi Tower which is Lucca’s version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The first thing you’ll notice about the tower is the trees on the top which I found unusual. I’d never seen anything like it.

You can get in for 4 Euros or for an extra 2 Euros you can also get access to the Clock Tower which is what we decided to do. Around 230 steps later we saw some breathtaking views, it was a tighter squeeze than the Leaning Tower of Pisa purely because of the trees in the middle, and it’s a bit of a free for all as there are no time slots either like Pisa.

Deciding to give our legs a bit of a rest from all that step climbing, we went into the Lucca’s Roman Cathlotic Cathedral. By the time we went the Cathedral was pretty much empty so we could enjoy the peace and space. The Cathedral cost 3 Euros to enter, I was surprised for that price to find it empty, but then I guess we got there after peak hours.

We were looking to go to the clock tower but couldn’t remember how to get there. Google Maps wasn’t much help either because we needed the name of the tower in Italian. After scratching our heads trying to figure something out I remembered Torre was the word for Tower. After typing “torre” into Google Maps I recognised the name of the place we needed instantly as “Torre delle Ore” which if I’m not mistaken translates to “Tower of the Hour”.

Anyway, after walking up another 207 steps to the top, we were taken aback by more beautiful views of Lucca. For me I thought the Clock Tower offered better views than Guinigi Tower. Either way they both offered great views, but the Clock Tower was virtually empty meaning the 3 of us could admire the scenery by ourselves, not to mention the extra space on offer without any trees getting in our way.

Our last stop of the day before the bike tour around the city walls was the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro. Beth and Greg were in need of a cappuccino while I went around and took some photos of the square and left them to relax for a bit. I believe this square is the most popular among locals to eat and drink so head here if you want authentic local food from Lucca.

The funny thing when we hired our bikes out was Beth and Greg decided to get a tandem bike. Beth didn’t seem too keen from the get go but she went with it. I suppose for a couple it’s nice to try but I’d hate to imagine what it would be like to bike up a hill with it.

You can bike around the city walls in 20 – 30 minutes if you don’t stop as the city walls is between 4km – 5km. On any other day I’d have just walked it (I’ll probably do that next time I’m here) but I don’t bike often so why not change it up. And for 3.50 Euros why would you not bike around some of the best spots in Lucca?

Beth and Greg got back to the bike shop in plenty of time; I made it with about 10 minutes to spare. After settling up, we were on our way. They kindly dropped me back to Pisa Centrale Train Station. The only thing that didn’t go to plan was giving them the wrong directions. I blame Google Maps because it was slow to react. It wasn’t all bad as we got to see some nice mountain views, you could say it was a blessing in disguise.

Lucca is a beautiful place worth visiting. There are hardly any tourists and many things to fill your day. I’d even say there’s more to do there than in Pisa. I’m going make a prediction and say that in the next 5 years, Lucca will become as popular destination as Pisa to visit so make sure you swing by when you’re in Tuscany.

Although I read Pisa and Lucca could be done comfortably in a day, I was a tad sceptical. But you can easily do both at a stroll and have plenty of time to spare. I’d suggest you leave the bike tour around the city walls till last because that way you’re not rushing to see everything and risk missing out because of closures. And it gives you the chance to see some good views at sunset.

One of the many reasons I love travelling solo is because you never know who you’ll meet and what it can come to. Meeting Beth and Greg and taking their photo for them at the Leaning Tower of Pisa ended up with me spending the day with them. To Beth and Greg: A big thank you for the ride and your company, it was one of the best days I’ve had travelling!