The church of San Michele in Foro of Lucca is ideally as well as physically in the heart of the ancient Roman town. It is a basilica with three aisles, transept and semicircular apse; the nave is supported by arches resting upon monolithic pillars and the whole building is covered by barrel vaults with lunettes. The bell tower is above the southern transept. The outside of the church is distinguished by a high ribbed and richly sculpted fa¨ade; the walls are mainly of perfectly squared limestone blocks. The church of SS. Giovanni and Reparata of Lucca is in the southern part of the ancient Roman town. It is a basilica with three aisles and a transept, covered by a wooden ceiling. Large part of the interior is covered with plaster and painted to imitate stone. The fa¨ade is in white limestone, while the rest of the building consists mainly of sandstone or brickwork. The transept, almost entirely made of bricks, communicates directly with the large baptistery; the latter has a square plan. The area occupied by church and baptistery has been recently object of an excavation campaign that has brought to light remains of early Christian buildings, the site can now be visited.

The Giacomo Puccini House Museum that belongs to the Puccini Foundation, established in 1973, is in the house where Giacomo Puccini, the last of a family of musicians that dominated the musical scene in Lucca, was born. The Puccini family had moved from Celle to Lucca in the first half of the XVIIIth century. In this house, situated at Corte San Lorenzo, Giacomo Puccini was born on the 22nd December 1858. Orphan of father, he spent here the years of his childhood and early youth before moving to Milan in order to continue his studies. However, he remembered the house where he was born all his life and it was his will that it should remain property of the family. Once he reached fame and success Puccini lived in Milan, Torre del Lago , Boscolungo, Chiatri, Torre della Tagliata (Orbetello) and Viareggio where the main Puccini houses can be found (together with the house of his ancestors in "Celle dei Puccini"). The house where he was born is certainly the first one to see: a visit of the place where Giacomo grew up will help you to become familiar and learn more about this great figure of classical music. He is the author, among other masterpieces, of the La Boh¸me. Lucca's medieval and Renaissance features are enclosed in its thick sixteenth century walls, a characteristic of this beautiful Tuscan town on the left of the river Serchio. The circle of walls has eleven bastions of different shapes and dimensions. Both the so called Torrione del Bastardo and the San Martino bastion have preserved their original XVIth century structure. In particular inside the latter, open to visitors, we can examine in detail of one of these impressive constructions and see how the gunports used to be arranged. The San Paolino bastion, completely restored and open to visitors, proposes an unusual and winning solution for the reclamation and usage of large underground spaces. The town was a free commune since the XIIth century and Porta San Pietro, the oldest (1565-1566) of its three original gates, was the only one through which foreigners were allowed to pass. Though in part modified in the course of the centuries, it still preserves substantially unchanged the look of its elegant facade.