A Palazzo Busdraghi Residenza D’Epoca

You know what’s funny about Lucca? Everyone gets so caught up in the medieval walls and the towers that they walk right past some of the most gorgeous buildings in the city center. A Palazzo Busdraghi is one of those places – I mean, it’s literally on Via Fillungo, which is basically Lucca’s main drag, but tucked away in this 16th-century palazzo that honestly feels like someone’s impossibly elegant family home. The moment you step through those heavy wooden doors, there’s this immediate hush that makes you forget you’re about ten steps from all the gelato shops and tourist chaos outside.

The thing about staying here is that you’re not just getting a hotel room – you’re getting to live inside a piece of Lucca’s history, and they’ve done it without making it feel like a museum. The rooms have these incredible frescoed ceilings (some original, some beautifully restored), and the bathrooms actually work, which… well, if you’ve stayed in historic Italian properties before, you know that’s not always a given. I loved that they kept the original terracotta floors in most rooms, though fair warning – pack slippers because those tiles get cold in the morning. The beds are genuinely comfortable too, not just pretty to look at, and the windows are thick enough that you won’t hear every conversation from the street below. Actually, Via Fillungo gets surprisingly quiet after the shops close around 8 PM, so even the street-facing rooms are peaceful for sleeping.

What really sold me on this place was the breakfast situation – they serve it in this gorgeous salon with period furniture, and it’s not just the usual Italian hotel spread of cornetti and coffee. They actually have local specialties, and the staff (who’ve clearly been there forever) will tell you exactly where to find the best farro soup in town or which osteria the locals actually go to. The location is pretty much perfect if you want to explore on foot – you’re maybe a three-minute walk from the Guinigi Tower, and Piazza San Michele is right there when you step outside. Parking can be tricky since the historic center is mostly pedestrian-only, but they’ll sort you out with directions to the closest garage, and honestly, once you’re settled in, you won’t need a car anyway. The 8.4 rating makes sense to me – it’s the kind of place that delivers on the romance of staying in a Tuscan palazzo without the drama of things constantly breaking down or service that makes you feel like you’re bothering them just by existing.