Lucca
If you have young children, Lucca is a great kid-friendly place. You can stroll the ancient wall and let your kids run off some steam, or rent bikes (for reasonable cost) and cruise around together. There are lots of big shade trees so it is quite pleasant even in the heat of summer. Climbing Guinigi Tower is a great way to get some exercise and there is no minimum age requirement (as compared to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where kids have to be at least 8 to climb).

If you think the top of the wall is cool, wait til you see underneath it! The cavernous, brick-vaulted interior of the wall (yes, the wall is so massive that there are warehouse-sized spaces inside it) is not only a beautiful and peaceful space but also home to crazy works of art in paper. Every two years Lucca is home to the world's biggest festival of paper art, the Lucca Biennale.

Lucca also features beautiful shops (major fashion brands as well as boutiques brimming with artisan creations), really good gelato and excellent cuisine.

Our agenda in Lucca includes:

• a panoramic drive around the ancient walls
• the Romanesque church of San Frediano (monumental golden mosaic on the facade)
• Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, site of the former Roman amphitheater
• church of San Michele in Foro (intricately carved facade dating back to the 13th Century)
• Piazza Napoleone
• the cathedral of San Martino, featuring Jacopo della Quercia's sculpture of Ilaria del Carretto, deemed the most beautiful funerary monument in Italy and a work of art to compare with Michelangelo’s David, and the Volto Santo, a wooden crucifix dating back to the 8th century, the subject of much lore.

CHURCH DRESS CODE
Proper attire is required to enter churches (bare shoulders must be covered and shorts/skirts must come down to your knees).