Da Elisa alle Sette Arti, Lucca

The Quatro Fontanas or the Fountain Travel Club stayed in this Hotel (perhaps better decribed as Bed Guest House)

The first thing it is very cheap in price two nights for Double Room thru Bookings.com would be about £60. You can also see photos of the Rooms on that site)

Now I have said it is Cheap and no breakfast ,DONT TURN OFF JUST YET, it does have other attributes.

First you have to find the place.
...from Pisa where we had flown into. The Airport at Pisa is only 3 miles from the Railway station, then about 35 mins on train to Lucca.

You come out of the station at Lucca and are faced with what they call the Meadow. This is a grassy park area that lies outside the WALLS, yes WALLS. These you have to either Get over or walk round to one of the main gates. Lucca is a BEAUTIFUL WALLED TOWN.

We went over the walls by means ... more

The Quatro Fontanas or the Fountain Travel Club stayed in this Hotel (perhaps better decribed as Bed Guest House)

The first thing it is very cheap in price two nights for Double Room thru Bookings.com would be about £60. You can also see photos of the Rooms on that site)

Now I have said it is Cheap and no breakfast ,DONT TURN OFF JUST YET, it does have other attributes.

First you have to find the place.

We arrived as most do by Train from Pisa where we had flown into. The Airport at Pisa is only 3 miles from the Railway station, then about 35 mins on train to Lucca.

You come out of the station at Lucca and are faced with what they call the Meadow. This is a grassy park area that lies outside the WALLS, yes WALLS. These you have to either Get over or walk round to one of the main gates. Lucca is a BEAUTIFUL WALLED TOWN.

We went over the walls by means of Stairs, the Walls are wide enough to have a small road run all the way around the top. No cars but the Locals and you, if you hire bike around or Promanard around the tops of the Walls.

Once you find the Accommodation you check in, check in is not manned most of the time, best arrange time of arrival. Two of the room doors are just behind the checkin desk. But as it is only manned when necessary not a noise problem.

The room photos (on Bookings.com) are probably better then the rooms. They are large with ceiling paintings etc, but the plumbing did make a bit of noise.

As you are at the bottom end of the market rooms are not on suite, there are 3 Bathrooms/Toilets down the corridor that are shared.

You probably have SWITCHED OFF AT THIS POINT.

As said breakfast is not included but you do have use of the Kitchen, thats the photo of the Stone Sink, yes it is there.

We did find this OK, as one of us would nip to the nearby bakers for all those Italian Pastries and bread for breakfast washed down with our own TEA and Coffee. It was a good way of meeting the other clients.

The location being inside the walls is very good as Lucca is not a very large place and fairly pedestrian friendly.

There is that lovely Tower to climb, the one we have all seen in the Photos with about 4 trees growing out of the top.

A lovely arena type place, if you watched Franco,s Italy series on BBC the arena where the Lady sang some Puccini, after all this is where he came from.

There is a small Puccini Museme very close to the Hotel.

Eating out is very good but be careful if they offer you VEGTABLES OF LUCCA, we thought that sounds Ok to go with our main courses so ordered 4 portions. IT WAS JUST SPINICH, Rather a lot of SPINICH.

Lucca is a great base to visit Pisa, and I would certainly recommend staying in Lucca rather than Pisa. It is just so beautiful to walk around the Streets with Little Shops with Fantastic Service.

As said find time to walk or bike around the walls, you can do the Full Circuit. This is where the Locals Prominarde.

House wines as everywhere in this region are very good so dont bother paying extra just to have wine out of a bottle, the jug kind is great.

Yes the place was Basic, but it was clean and an experience, probably for the Younger more Adventure type traveller, next time will go for a bit more comfort. But will still pass this place and smile at escorting the wife down the corridor in the middle of the night to the toilet and meeting my brother on the same task. Somehow we passed most of the rest of the night in that Kitchen with some good Tuscan Wine. 

...less