La Spezia Shore Excursion to Lucca and Leaning Tower of Pisa

Be sure to be at the meeting point at least 15 minutes before departure time, at the meeting point you will find the staff wearing a GREEN T-Shirt. No refund will be give in case of late coming

Once you will arrive in Lucca you will have some free time or a walking tour in the city center with our escort (if selected) where yout will lead through the most important landmarks like the Torre Guinigi, the Anfitatro square and the san Frediano Church.

Admire the 45 metres high Tower, a typical example of Romanesque-Gothic architecture. The tower, built in stone and brick, is one of the most representative and famous monuments of Lucca; its main feature is the presence of some holm oaks on its top. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Lucca was proud of the over 250 towers and numerous bell towers that enriched the city in medieval times, within a much narrower circle of walls than today. The Guinigi, now masters of the city, wanted to refine their severe residences with a tree-lined tower, common to other palaces, which became a symbol of rebirth, on top of the simulacrum of their lordship. Reaching the top is made possible by 25 flights of stairs - for a total of 241 steps - quite easy in the first part but not in the last one, where you can continue to climb only thanks to small metal ramps. Hanging on the internal walls, it is possible to admire numerous paintings depicting scenes of medieval life.

Enter this Romanesque church built in in the first half of the 6th century dedicated to the three holy Levites Vincenzo, Stefano and Lorenzo existed in this place. The construction of this first church can be traced back to San Frediano himself, an Irish presbyter who was elected bishop of Lucca between 560 and 588. The excavations carried out under the current basilica confirmed the presence of the ancient building.

Visit this square, a former second century Roman amphitheater of Lucca. The square was born in the Middle Ages and in this era it was called "parlascio", a distortion of the Latin paralisium ("amphitheatre"), which, due to the influence of the word "talk", was said to indicate the place where citizens' meetings were held. It was progressively filled with buildings, variously used as a salt warehouse, powder magazine and prison.

Fall in love with Pisa and the amazing Piazza Dei Miracoli: the most popular attraction in Pisa where you will have free time to visit the Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the Baptistery or relaxing In the green meadow under the shadow of one of this monument. Included in your excursion you have an ice cream ( if selected ) in the city center!

If selected you have the chance to climb this iconical tower, popularly known as the leaning tower, the bell tower of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in the famous Piazza del Duomo of which it is the most famous monument due to its characteristic slope, symbol of Pisa and among the iconic symbols of Italy. It is a free-standing bell tower 57 meters high (58.36 meters considering the foundation plan) built over two centuries, between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. With a mass of 14,453 tons, the curved line predominates, with turns of blind arches and six floors of loggias. The slope is due to a subsidence of the underlying ground which occurred already in the early stages of construction.

Look at Monumental Cemetery, where the legend claims that bodies buried in that ground will rot in just 24 hour. Architecturally the Camposanto is composed of a high rectangular wall, with the side facing the Cathedral and the more elongated baptistery. On the outside it is in simple white marble, with 43 blind arches with human heads on the arch connections, and two doors on the southern side[4]. The main access is the one overlooking the square, to the east, and is decorated with a rich Gothic tabernacle above the access portal, a work from the second half of the 14th century, containing statues of the Madonna and Child and four saints by a follower of John Pisano, and Angels by Tino di Camaino

Admire the largest baptistery in Italy, it is 54 m high, with a diameter of 34, built from 1152 to 1363. The baptistery has a curious truncated cone dome, like that of the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Pisa, also by the same architect, which only covers the internal circle of pillars (the construction technique for a large hemispherical or polygonal dome was almost unknown at the time ). Diotisalvi's project was to architecturally cite both the Dome of the Rock (believed to be built on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon) in the external part, and the Anástasis of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in the internal part, both in Jerusalem. Subsequently the works were continued by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano who modified the Baptistery in Gothic style with the loggia and the hemispherical dome (effectively a dome) which hides the pyramidal one.

The Cathedral of Pisa, officially the Primate Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in the center of the Piazza del Duomo, also known as Piazza dei Miracoli, is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa as well as the Primate church. A masterpiece of the Romanesque, in particular of the Pisan Romanesque, it represents the tangible testimony of the prestige and wealth achieved by the maritime republic of Pisa at the moment of its apogee. The building has a Latin cross shape with a large dome at the intersection of the arms. The longitudinal body, divided into five naves, extends over ten bays. This plan continues in the choir with two more bays and a final apse crowning the central nave alone. The transept has 4 bays on each side (or six if we include the two in common with the longitudinal body) and has three naves with apses ending on both sides. In the center four large pillars delimit the rectangular cross ending at the top with a large elliptical dome.

Back at the same place where you left