TREKKING URBANO 2024
Nature, art and memory for the 21st National Day of Urban Trekking, the annual event to discover together, at a slow pace, the most hidden corners, the most unexpected curiosities, and what the artistic and natural beauties of the many Italian cities adhering to the initiative have yet to reveal.
Double appointment in Lucca, Sunday 27 October at 11:00 a.m. or at 3:00 p.m. with an itinerary above and below the Walls of Lucca, up to the Botanical Garden, exploring the history, nature and sustainability of the city.
The theme of this year edition is Natura ad Arte: memoria, artificio, paesaggio (Nature in Art: memory, artifice, landscape), with routes and initiatives celebrating the ‘transformation of a territory with human knowledge and the preservation of identity memory’, exploring ‘the architectural and artistic artifice in harmony with the natural elements, identity signs of a city’.
NATURE IN ART: FROM THE WALLS OF LUCCA TO THE BOTANICAL GARDEN
A walk above and below the Walls of Lucca, to the Botanical Garden, a small green corner in the heart of the historic centre. Two precious and beloved places, witnesses to centuries of history, art and nature, and spokesmen for current issues such as sustainability, the protection of biodiversity, and the indissoluble relationship between human beings and the plant world.
The long tree-lined avenue of the Renaissance Walls, running all around the centre of the city, is a panoramic walk with wonderful views of monuments, churches and palaces, and a botanical itinerary to be discovered step by step, amidst the ever-changing colours and scents, when, in autumn, oaks, liriodendrons and beeches offer the spectacle of an irresistible foliage.
Under the Walls, the wonder continues in the basements of the ramparts, in tunnels, nooks and crannies and secret passages, once used to store cannons and weapons, today extraordinary places to ‘rediscover’.
Finally, the Botanical Garden, guardian of a historical-scientific and architectural heritage that retains most of its 19th-century structures: the arboretum with its monumental-looking centuries-old trees, including the extraordinary Ginkgo biloba with its golden-yellow autumn foliage, the Montagnola with the native flora of the nearby mountains, the legendary small lake, the botanical school with its collection of medicinal plants, the greenhouses and the library.
Route information
walking time: 2 hours
length: 4 km
difficulty: low
departure time: 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
for information and registration:
- Infopoint Mura di Lucca c/o Castello di Porta San Donato Nuova; tel. 0583 442213 - info@turismo.lucca.it
- IAT piazzale Verdi c/o Porta San Donato Vecchia; tel. 0583 583150 - turismolucca@luccaplus.it