Ai Cipressi is about 2 blocks from the Eastern Eliza Gate to old Lucca. The accessible room is at the end of the ground floor apartments. It looks onto the car park but has a pleasant little pergola with table, chairs and fake grass. Unfortunately our neighbour was often outside smoking but she seemed conscious of not annoying us. I say apartment because it has a kitchenette of sorts. The room is quite spacious and the bed is a little not not too low for wheelies. There is reasonable room on both sides of the queen bed. The kitchenette has a small fridge and two hot plates. The owners were reluctant for us to use the hot plates but when we said it was for making stove top espresso they connected it up. There are no cooking utensils and no plates, knifes, forks etc. We usually carry a small picnic basket to get around such oversights. We asked for and obligingly received a bollitore (electric kettle) and an iron (ferro). The owners, two brothers, seem very willing to try and solve any shortcomings. On asking w e received 4 extra towels and a couple of extra (but wimpy) pillows. The main issue was the “roll-in” shower. Apparently previous guests had complained that the shower made the greater bathroom floor wet so the owners obligingly put 3cm marble strips around the shower. This meant my shower chair could not roll in to the area easily. Gabrielle rushed off and bought 6 tiles and two rubber mats and fashioned a ramp of sorts but it was not optimal.
The area near AI Cipressi had a few nice bars pizzerias and a large well stocked Conad supermarket just down the road.
Just around the corner in Viale Castruccio Castracani is Le Mura, a good pizza joint.
AI Cipressi is only a five minute walk from the Eastern gate. I recommend walking to AI Cipressi from the centre via Viale Castruccio Castracani as it is better for wheelies (you can use the bike path).
