Has anyone stayed in Lucca Italy?

I was in Lucca for two nights last year and I cannot wait to go back. Be sure to stay inside the walls. There are lots of B&Bs and some small hotels (booking.com or venere.com can be useful with this). I just loved the atmosphere of the place, the attitude of the people, some great little restaurants, lots of musical entertainment (Puccini's birthplace). It's not as centrally located for train/bus connections as some other places, but definitely worth a chunk of time.

We visited both Lucca and Florence with our daughters a couple of years ago. Our quad room in a Florence B and B was 160€ a night. In Lucca, we had a very nice two bedroom apartment with well-equipped kitchen and laundry room in an historic building for 130€ a night. This was inside the walls near one of the entrance gates. You can easily walk all over Lucca but lots of people ride bikes too. The people are friendly, the restaurants are welcoming, and the town is not crowded. There is nothing not to like about Lucca.

We also enjoyed Lucca, though we only had one night to spend there. I would happily return. For a one week stay I would recommend an apartment. I have found them using vrbo.com, homeaway.com and airbnb.com.

Love Lucca! Have been there several times, once for a week, both with and without a car. Rented this nice little apartment inside the walls when I travelled with a friend: http://www.vrbo.com/232190. We made easy train trips to Florence and the CT. When my family visited there for a week (with a toddler) we opted for a larger apartment just outside the walls on a main street leading into one of the city gates. Loved that too because we started to feel like a part of the neighborhood, returning to the same friendly restaurant and bakery, and we could park on the street. Dipping into Tuscany and the coast was even easier with a car. A stylish city but not too expensive, and our restaurant outside the walls was extremely reasonable.

Sandra,
Lucca is one of my favorite towns in Italy. I would recommend staying inside the walls. I stay at a renovated convent close to the back wall of the city and very close to via fullingo (the main shopping street). It is very reasonable. It is austere, clean but not the least fancy. But, I was only in the room to sleep so I didn't mind. Clean is all I cared about. They do have private rooms with private baths but you can get a room with a hall bath or a dorm room very inexpensively. I took a cooking class in Lucca. It was wonderful and the Puccini performances in the evening are great. Great shopping ( I bought my favorite leather purse in Lucca) and the best pizza I had on my last trip was in Lucca. PM me if you want names of any of the places I mentioned.

Just to give a slightly different perspective, I found Lucca to be fine but not remarkable. Sort of a "meh" for me. That may be because it had really been overhyped by friends who had stayed there before. One thing I didn't care for was that it's down in a flat plain and I really prefer hilltop towns with a view over the surrounding countryside. (Orvieto, for example.)

As for the "Puccini performances," if Karren means the nightly ones in the former church, our experience was really mixed. The first one we went to had an absolutely outstanding baritone and a so-so soprano. The two other performances we went to featured really weak tenors and more so-so sopranos. The performers are students in the local music program, so you never know who you're going to get. At least that was our experience.

This is not to deny any else's experience of Lucca. Just know that there are other opinions out there.

I have to echo Michael's remarks. I really wanted to love Lucca as one of my doctors who has traveled the world extensively had told me that it was his favorite place in Europe so I had high hopes. Unfortunately I did not care for it much at all. We overnighted in Lucca for one night (a few blocks outside the city walls) and visited many of the main sights. We happened to also be there during some sort of festival which actually made it more interesting but I would not return to Lucca and was glad that we were only there for one night! I also prefer the hill towns with views and just didn't get the same "vibe" from Lucca that I did from all the other Tuscan towns we visited. It's probably one of those things though where you won't know if you'll like it or not until you go and see it for yourself. Have a great trip.