This Tuscan apartment will make you forget about hotels for ever

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince when it comes to holiday apartments, and as a travel writer of 30 years I’ve had my fair share of slimy snogs. There was the flat in Barcelona where the ceiling fan crashed onto our bed in the middle of the night, an apartment in Sicily where you almost needed climbing ropes to tackle the dodgy ladder staircase, a building in Paris where — how should I put it? — neighbours would come and go by the hour.
This summer in Tuscany, we finally found our prince. Bang on Via Fillungo in Lucca (it is Lucca’s Royal Mile but with less tartan tat, more designer boutiques), Busdraghi Luxury Apartment is an Airbnb “guest favourite” (a badge afforded to properties with 4.9 ratings or higher) and the sort of place that makes you wonder why you ever bother with hotels.
For one thing there are vast acres of space. Wrapped around two sides of an ancient square, the second-floor apartment has a large, elegant lounge with parquet floors, a dining room whose table converts into a full-size snooker table and a cute wee kitchen that doubles, at least for me, as a place to read a book while waiting for the moka pot to boil. In other words it is a place to hang — ideal if you’re here as a group.
Remarkably the apartment also has a sauna — more exciting if you’re here in winter, I’m guessing, as opposed to during our visit in July when the whole city was already sauna enough, thanks very much. More relevant for us were the multiple air-conditioning units scattered about the flat, including one in each of the three high-ceilinged bedrooms. With six of us in the flat, a bathroom for each room was a serious bonus, too, though again, people coming in winter will probably appreciate the bath more than we did.
It wasn’t all perfect — and yes, broken air con in the smallest bedroom on the first night, I’m talking about you — but the owner, Valentina, was quick to get a man out to fix it. You could argue that a few funky artworks would work better than the antiques and random glass dome clock in the dining room. However, there are just enough quirky pieces to keep things characterful, including mustard crushed-velvet sofas and a fun gold palm tree lampstand.
The flat’s real USP though? Its location. Less than a five-minute stroll from the much-selfied Piazza Anfiteatro (considerably more if you stop for gelato at the sensational La Crema Matta right outside the front door), the apartment is a Gucci-bag toss from a foreverness of bouji boutiques, pavement cafs and marble-fronted churches. There is much to love about Lucca with its perfectly preserved walls, medieval bell towers and cobbled alleys, but for us nothing ever beat the look on other tourists’ faces as we emerged from the flat each morning through its ancient wooden doors. “How on earth do you get to stay there?” they seemed to wonder. “Bet they’re loaded.”
Actually you don’t need to be loaded to stay at Busdraghi. Our four nights in July cost £1,695 — that’s £70pp a night, in high season. OK, not crazy cheap but not bad either, especially as you can save a bit of cash by cooking in.
Not that you’re likely to bother, with so many tantalising restaurants right outside your front door. We did a lovely lap of the city walls (fun), climbed the 230 steps to the top of Guinigi Tower (hot), ogled the art in the cathedral (mamma mia) but mostly our days revolved around food: coffee and pastries from Taddeucci’s, watching the world go by below the remarkable Romanesque church in Piazza San Michele, lunchtime bruschetta at Sunflower café, watching the world go by below the remarkable Romanesque church in Piazza San Frediano; Aperol spritzes in Piazza del Giglio, watching the world … you get the idea. If you eat nowhere else in Lucca, make sure you dine at Da Nonna Clara, whose pappardelle pasta and signature baked spinach torta are worth the air fare alone.
On our last morning in Lucca we sat on the lovely wee balcony back at the flat, watching a kitten poke his head out from a window across the square. Swifts swept across the terracotta rooftops, pigeons cooed from an orange grove below. “Come back next year?” my partner asked. “Too right,” I said. “Those pastries won’t eat themselves.”Three nights’ self-catering at Busdraghi Luxury Apartment costs from £768, sleeping six (airbnb.co.uk). Fly from Edinburgh to Pisa (30 minutes’ by train from Lucca) from about £75 return (ryanair.com)