Lucca might just be the most perfect Tuscan city for London weekenders, an intimate and compact mash up of narrow cobbled streets, marble-fronted churches — 101 of them — tall towers and Renaissance walls all within 30 minutes of Pisa airport. Despite its accessibility and charm, there’s a real shortage of good in the city — so hurray for Grand Universe Lucca. The 55-room hotel is part of Marriot’s Autograph Collection.
Opened in 2021, it marries international quality with a thoroughly Italian flavour. Inside the solid Renaissance walls that encircle Lucca, Grand Universe Lucca has a simply superb position on two of the city’s grandest squares, Piazza del Giglio and Piazza Napoleone. The hotel’s grand façade overlooks the statue of Italian unifier Giuseppe Garibaldi with the Teatro del Giglio opera house opposite.
All of Lucca’s shops, restaurants and historic sites are within an easy walk. Lucca is an authentic, understated city in the north of , accessible by car, train or bus from Pisa airport. Viareggio on the Tuscan coast is 30 minutes away, and within 90 minutes there’s both winter skiing at Abetone and the cultural brilliance of Florence and Chianti.
Think lavish Tuscan splendour with a contemporary flourish. The hotel is built on what was once the site of a glassblower’s atelier in Roman times before the Paoli family built their grand Renaissance palazzo. It first opened as a hotel in 1857 (with guests having included English writer John Ruskin),.