Lucca for a month

Residents and tourists alike enjoy walking and biking along the tops of the city walls. There's a popular antiques/flea market the third weekend of the month. The gardens of the Palazzo Pfanner are lovely to visit, and there's a sweet little Arboretum in the southeast corner of town. The Guinigi Tower (the one with trees growing out of the top) can be climbed for a magnificent view. There's a horse-riding outfit (luccahorseriding.com) ~20 miles out of town, but you have to pay extra for transportation if you don't have a car. Lucca is beautiful - have a wonderful time!

Check into visiting some of the elegant 19th century villas around Lucca. I did one courtesy of Rick Steves’ Hill Towns tour but I imagine there must be some tours you can arrange from Lucca. Fascinating glimpse of how the wealthy lived, fantastic houses and gardens.

hey hey cyn
luccatours.com a welcome tour with wanda to this walled city or tour the villas in the area
come&seeitaly.com tour up in the hills to garfagnana and barga
a short ride to a winery, fattoriaaldotto.it, change language to english
extravirginlucca.com or chef paolo monti with cucina-italiana.com and take a cooking class
the town of collodi, home to pinocchio, has the villa, garzoni gardens and the butterfly house
so much to see and do, enjoy your time have fun
aloha

I've been to Lucca 5 times, and the place I want to see more of is the Garfagnana, north of Lucca. Un-touristy and fascinating to me. But what are your interests? I can ask my Italian cousin in Lucca where to swim but you can learn that on google too. Cooking lessons in English are a big deal right now. Does that interest you? History? Art? Culture? Lucca has a lot to offer. Do you want to learn Italian too?

Another possibility would be the pretty little spa town of Montecatini Terme - about 25 minutes by train from Lucca. There are a number of impressive spas where you can while away the day in Belle Epoque elegance, and the town itself is a stroller's delight with several inviting little parks where you can settle in with a good book and just relax. A funicular train will take you up the mountain to Montacatini Alto which features some spectacular views and a number of terrific restaurants for a leisurely lunch.

Pistoia is a sweet little town only 20" away by train. You might also look into a tour of the marble mines of Carrara. The town about an hour away by train, and Cave Di Marmo tours do a very highly rated tour by 4-wheel drive. They were very responsive when I attempted to book with them in Dec. 2017 (but I wanted to tour on Christmas Eve and they couldn't fill the tour) and were willing to pick me up at the Carrara-Avenza train station.

Wow! Thank you for all the amazing and unexpected suggestions, villas, marble mines and spas! I had never heard of the Garfagnana before and it seems particularly fascinating to me as well. I am now reading everything I can find about the area.

Since I will be "living" in Lucca for a month I thought I would probably need to keep up with some routine maintenance activities especially exercise. Thus my question about biking, swimming pools or gyms. I haven't had much luck finding such places on google.

But I also love to stroll and walk and hike and your suggestions have alerted me to new oppportunities and venues. I am interested in most everything (except cooking, too many years of having to cook for a family I guess) and am always looking for opportunities to improve my italian and french outside of a classroom.

Thank you all again for taking the time to share. You are an amazing resource and source of inspiration! Cindy