Book your stay in Lucca
If there’s one place you won’t get lost in Lucca, it’s Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, one of the symbolic public spaces of our city.
The piazza has an elliptical shape and is entered by four vaulted doors. Even though they’re no longer visible, under the piazza lie the remains of the 2nd-century AD Roman amphitheatre, where gladiator fights were held for the public.
With the collapse of the Roman Empire, the amphitheatre suffered the same fate and became a quarry for useful construction materials.
In the Middle Ages city meetings were held here and slowly it was filled with small buildings used over time for a variety of purposes: powder magazines, prisons and salt deposits.
In the 19th century, the Royal Architect Lorenzo Nottolini, at the request of the Bourbons, finally freed it from the buildings in the centre and transformed it into the main location of Vettovaglie Market.
Today Piazza dell'Anfiteatro is just a beautiful piazza with a very special silhouette, where you linger in the evening for an aperitivo in company or spend the afternoon with a gelato and a chat and admire the beauty that reigns all around.
