THE COFFEE

cafe ninci

Piazza Napoleone, 2, 55100 Lucca LU

Like all good Italian Cafés, Café Ninci is a family business. Originally set up by Frediano Ninci after returning to Italy from a trip to Brazil, Café Ninci was established in 1925 as both a café and roastery. Now, 4 generations of the Ninci family later, the café is still very much in the family, and very much serving up the best coffee in Lucca. Each day the café is filled with locals, sipping their espresso, or snacking on a broche or foccacio. You won’t find any specialty coffee here. No V-60’s, flat whites or filters - just an excellent espresso. What’s better, the café looks out across Plaza Napoleone, one of the busier plazas of Lucca. There truly isn’t anything better than pulling up a chair beside an appropriately red-white checkerboard table cloth, sipping an espresso, and watching the town go by. Every Italian stereotype melding into one perfect way to spend a morning. Even better, if you turn up after midday, they’ll fix you an aperol spritz and you can repeat the whole process again. Bellisimo!

Wanna read more about Lucca? Read our one day itinerary here.

THE DRINK

Da Cervesia Taproom

Via Michele Rosi, 20, 55100 Lucca

Da Cervesia are something of juggernauts in Lucca. With both a bottle shop and taproom in town, Da Cervesia have certainly cornered the market for affordable craft beer fans in the region. We spent a solid few hours at their taproom on Via Michelle Rosi, sampling the excellent IPA, delectable golden ale, and the intriguingly alcoholic scotch ale (NB; drink some water after sampling this one). A beer here will cost you 3 euro, which, by contrast to supermarket prices may seem expensive, yet, the flavours they manage to exude into their beers are extraordinary. The vibe at the taproom is excellent; think relaxed college student haunt, and you won’t be far off. However, for those interested in having a tasting, they also offer tastings and sales at their other location on Via Fillungo, 92.

Wanna read more about me trying to find a very special piece of focaccia in Lucca? Hit the link here.

THE MEAL

PIZZeria de felice

Via Buia, 12, 55100 Lucca

Sure, Lucca is teeming with an abundance of restaurants cooking up the very best Tuscan cuisine. Sure, these places are fantastic. They are exemplary even. However, let’s just talk about Pizzeria De Felice for a moment. Located in the centre of this gorgeous walled city, Pizzeria De Felice has been in the same location for a 100 years, run by the very same family, and have been serving largely the same menu for a century now. You can feel it once you enter the front doors and cram into the tiny, one room restaurant. The place is inviting, rustic in all the right ways, and extremely affordable to eat at. The women behind the counter will help you out when you stumble on the Italian, and you can order by the slice or by the pizza. I would strongly recommend getting the proscuito al fungi, or the spicy salami. They don’t take reservations, seat only about 10 people at a given time, and seemed to be busy at every single moment in the day. However, my instincts tell me that pretty well whatever you order here will be excellent. You’ll come away having only spent 10 euro for the meal and a beer, and trust me, you’ll feel the better for it.

Any questions about where to get a decent meal in Lucca? Fire away in the comments; we’ve got the goods.