HISTORY

Al Porto di Lucca B&B is located exactly where a navigable channel to the sea once ended up, as is shown by ancient maps of this area of the city. Lucca, until the last century had a river port known as 'Fiumicello' which was in the district of San Concordio, south of the city. It afforded the people of Lucca with direct access to the Mediterranean Sea. From the area of Fiumicello, still called 'Al Porto', you could access the channel ' Formica', or 'Formicola' (width 7 meters) that led to the channel Ozzeri. This channel is a tributary to the west of the Serchio river and to the East of Arno river and through these two rivers, in the past, it was possible to reach the sea. The Ozzeri channel, dug in old Roman times, was renovated by the Bishop of Lucca, San Frediano, in the sixth century. The bed of the channel took a double slope so that from the port one could proceed to Montuolo to merge with the Serchio, or to move away from Lucca to Bientina and Arno. The port of Lucca was particularly important for the trading of silk and food supplies, in particular salt. Even the stones for the construction of the walls of Lucca were transported in 1500 by the channel arriving from the stone quarries of Guamo. The activity of the port Fiumicello stopped around 1860 with the arrival of the railway in Lucca, providing faster and safer transportation. So the port was filled and trees were planted there, meaning it is no longer visible today.