Bed & Breakfast La gemma di Elena

Food is tasty, good service.

We are a group of friends from New Zealand travelling Northern Italy by Vespa's and stayed in 11 different lots of accommodation, ranging from a Monastery in Rome to a 4-star hotel on the shores of Lake Como, but without doubt the La Gemma B & B gave us the best 'local' experience of our 3-week holiday. We booked 7 Rooms almost a year in advance and Gianluca was very helpful with the reservation process and equally brilliant during our stay. Breakfast was superb, the staff were very helpful and friendly, the rooms were charming, clean and comfortable, and the location inside the ancient walls was perfect. We parked our 10 scooters and support van at the B & B at a very reasonable rate and often enjoyed their lovely garden setting when having drinks and finger food each evening. If you are visiting from overseas and want a true Italian experience, then stay at La Gemma B & B - you won't be disappointed!!

We would highly recommend to anyone staying in Lucca. We stayed in the garden apartment which was amazing - spacious, air conditioned, well equipped kitchen, fabulous shower room and spotlessly clean. Breakfast was served in the main B&B house and was self service continental style with many different options and fresh coffee made to order, including decaf. The covered terrace in the garden was a real bonus. The staff were really helpful and went out of their way to give us the assistance we needed. Cannot comment on parking as we arrived by train from Pisa airport but would advise if you are carrying/dragging heavy luggage (in the heat or the rain) the walk from Lucca station was a bit of a challenge. Gemma di Elena kindly booked us a taxi from the apartment to Lucca station which cost 25 euro.

Wonderful location, walking distance to all major sights and parking the car next to the B&B. Wonderful friendly staff that took care of the permit from driving into the city centre. Despite being in the centre, no noise whatsoever. We were very happy

First and foremost the people here are the most pleasant you could imagine. They were so helpful especially with getting our car to their location as the GPS apparently likes to take everyone through town. They were so amazing and helpful with everything. Our room was right off the breakfast room and I was worried it would be loud in the morning but it wasn't at all. Loved our 3 night stay!

Only a few hours before we got to Lucca we started researching lodging options, because we only decided to go to Lucca at that point. So we had to work fast. We looked online and this place had good reviews and it was cheap. We decided to perhaps stay at La Gemma Di Elena, an apartment. However, we already had bad experiences with apartments on this and other trips, places that others found great and we found to be terrible. Also, sometimes a person has multiple apartments under the same name ans some are very good, while others not so much. Naturally, they show pictures online for the best one. So, because we were looking at this on *********** and because we could look up the apartment on the internet and get the owner’s phone number, we called and said we wanted to look at the apartment, because many times the photos offered online are not what the apartment truly is. She agreed. We tried to drive there, but like many other places in historic centers of cities in Italy, the GPS proved terrible at getting to her apartment. Even her directions to supplement the GPS were inadequate and so we came back out of the historic district which could have gotten us a ticket, although she was trying to get us authorization from the police to drive in the historic district. We stopped at a supermarket and parked in the parking lot. We called the woman and told her where we were. She said she would meet us there and then when she got there she offered to get in our car and help guide us to the apartment. We agreed. As we came to the area where the building was, I began to have misgivings, as it looked pretty bad. Then I saw there was a gate to get into the parking lot, which apparently was actually cut up into different sections for different buildings. This woman’s spots were right next to a wall. The first spot we were directed to would have locked us in as there was a car in front of us and one that could have been used by another car and we would have been dead. We have faced that problem before and I was not about to accept. I pointed out there were tons of spots open in the lot as it was almost completely empty. First, she said they were not her spots, but as I stood my ground, there was a man there, who may have been a friend or associate who finally said, we could park there, anyway. We parked. Then I asked where the apartment was. She pointed to a building in the distance, but I wasn’t certain which building it really was, as there were a whole bunch of buildings one connected by a common wall after another. She pointed to exactly where it was and said see where the light is. I did. It was on the second floor. We had lots of luggage, it was night and we were tired, so the last thing I wanted to do was have to lug my luggage a long way and climb up stairs and I told her that. I said unless the apartment was very good and I was doubtful at this point, as the buildings themselves looked pretty bad, to me, we would not rent the apartment. So we ente