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The early 13th-century façade stacks Pisan-Romanesque arcades over a portico of Romanesque carvings. Inside are sculptures by 15th-century master Matteo Civitale, Ilaria’s tomb, Tintoretto’s Last Supper (1591), and the revered Volto Santo , supposedly carved by Nicodemus.

Built atop the Roman Forum, San Michele’s striking Pisan-Romanesque arcades are stacked even higher than the Duomo’s. Inside are a Madonna and Child by Civitale, another by Andrea della Robbia, and a Filippo Lippi Saints . Composer Puccini was a chorister here.

Chestnuts and umbrella pines shade the gravelly path atop Lucca’s remarkable ramparts (1544-1650). Locals love to stroll or bicycle this circuit for views down into palazzo gardens and out over the Apuan Alps.

Jacopo della Quercia’s masterpiece (1405–7) in the Sacristy of the Duomo marries the medieval lying-in-state pose of town boss Paolo Guinigi’s young wife (she died at 26) with classical-inspired garlands and cherubs. Jacopo’s delicate chisel turned hard marble into soft cushions and captured Ilaria’s ethereal beauty.

Lucca’s Roman amphitheatre was long ago mined for building stone, but its oval remained as a base for medieval houses. It’s now a quiet piazza, with ancient arches embedded in house walls.

The façade glitters with Byzantine mosaics. Among its treasures are a carved Romanesque font and Amico Aspertini’s quirky fresco cycle (1508–9), the Miracles of San Frediano .

The 14th-century palace of Lucca’s ruling family sprouts a 44-m (144-ft) tower, with stunning panoramas.

Riotous baroque palace interiors serve as a backdrop for Renaissance and Mannerist paintings by Pontormo, Bronzino, Beccafumi, Correggio, Sodoma and Luca Giordano.

This 15th-century villa houses a fine archaeology section of Iron Age, Ligurian and later Etruscan finds, decent Renaissance paintings, and 15th-century wood inlay.

Though the Pisan façade is 12th century, the interior is mostly 17th century, including two Guercino altarpieces and a pietre dure ciborium (inlaid stone vessel).