Lucca Hotel Review - Alla Dimora Lucense

We were not sure we were even going to visit Lucca on our trip to Italy, let alone stay the night there.  When we rolled up to the walled city, we opened up our Rick Steves book and picked Alla Dimora Lucense to stay.

First, let it be known, this hotel is in the “back” of the walled city, so if you pull into town on a train and don’t want to get a cab, prepare to walk a lot over brick streets.  Even if you want a cab, you may not get one because there aren’t very many cars inside the walls of Lucca.

Outside of Alla Dimora Lucense, we are ready to "rock
on" now that we toted our bags miles across brick roads

Inside, the Alla Dimora Lucense is just lovely.  The rooms were named after parts of Lucca… we stayed in “Le Mura.”

In Italy during June, the weather is so perfect
you can keep the windows open.  Most often,
you don't have a choice as air conditioning is
not as common there.

I really like the windows open, except I don't so much love the garbage men love picking up trash at five in the morning during my vacation.  Also, we had an incident of horse slaughtering in Rome, which I'll talk about a few posts from now. 

A basic bed, but quite comfortable!

The bathroom had an extremely small shower, but that’s just how things go in Italy. This was strangely one of the larger showers we encountered in our Italian travels.

You may need to lose weight before showering!

Alla Dimora Lucense does have a garage for cars, but personally, I don't recommend bringing a car to Lucca, as you would probably just crash it in the tiny streets.

No room for cars inside the walls!

We paid €110 for our stay, including a discount for paying with cash and a filling breakfast.  Keep in mind, “filling breakfast” in Italy means some Nutella, cheese, and cappuccino.  The breakfast here was actually one of the best though.

Alla Dimora Lucense gets high marks from both my husband and me!

Total Cost: €110 for one night, about $135

Best Deal: A discount for paying with cash (which happens often in Italy, so carry Euros whenever you can!)

Lovely Lucca

About four hours north-ish of Rome, is the town of Pisa.  In one of my next posts, I’m going to try and convince you to skip this architectural mistake, but for now, let's focus on Lucca, about 20 minutes from the Leaning Tower where tourists flock.

Amazing, the architects in Lucca managed to
build a tower that DOESN'T lean!

Friends who had lived in Italy told us about Lucca and we couldn’t have been happier.  We arrived to find a walled city, where everything inside was storybook.  We checked into our hotel, Alla Dimora Lucensa (got a discount for paying in cash and showing the owner the Rick Steves book) and were off to explore the city.  Which we did for just €3! 

That was the cost for a bike rental for an hour.  On your bikes, you can cruise the two miles or so around Lucca while riding on a medieval wall.  When will you ever get that kind of opportunity again? 

I chose to get around on two wheels, but you can see other
people walking behind me

Adding some more peep to your step?  We bought a bottle of wine for our biking journey, to drink at the little parks along the way. 

If you are wondering, yes, we do carry a wine opener with us
everywhere we go!

Actually, we bought several bottles of wine.  And for one of those, we paid only €1.90.  That’s $2.34.  Here’s the proof, from the window of the store.

This ain't no Barefoot!  Lucca is technically in Tuscany and
therefore has amazing wine!

I wanted to buy about 10 bottles, but Frank thought we might be able to find better deals (unfortunately, we did not.  That’s why I’m the “Economical Explorer.” He’s just with me to look pretty). 

We actually both look pretty damn good here :)

That's taken from the top of Torre Guinigi (Guinigi Tower), one of the few towers left inside the city walls.  I highly recommend paying to take the journey up the stairs as it gives the most incredible views of the city.  It cost about €4 each.

One more note, the food in Lucca was out of this world.  I would say it was some of the best we had in Italy, although I would not necessarily say it was the cheapest.  However, I thought you got what you paid for, plus some.

Seafood salad - about €11. So much seafood I could not finish it on my own!

So, Lucca was indeed a good deal!  Here’s the breakdown of what we spent there during 24 hours for two people.

Hotel: €110

Bicycle Rental: €6/hour for two (we actually did this twice, so it was €12)
Tower: €8
Wine: €1.90
Dinner: €45
Lunch: €10 (x2) = €20

Total Cost: €196.90, about $242

Best deal: Wine for €1.90, about $2.34