Patron saint festival In 329 days
Feast of the Madonna del Mirteto
📅 Every year, on 8 September
On 8 September Luni celebrates its patron, the Madonna del Mirteto, at the sanctuary of Nostra Signora del Mirteto.
The name is that of the goddess Luna, to whom the colony was consecrated in 177 BC, perhaps by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. The crescent of the port, which had that shape, comes into it, and so does Diana Lucifera; but so, perhaps, does the mud: in Celto-Ligurian lun or luk would mean marsh.
The two ideas do not exclude each other. Both Luna and Lucca were born surrounded by marshes, which the Romans took centuries to drain, and Diana was also the goddess of wild, uncultivated places. From that colony comes the name of the Lunigiana, the country between La Spezia and Massa-Carrara crossed by the Magra and by the via Francigena. There are 8,405 residents.
The Luni guide
What to see 5
Luna · santuario di Nostra Signora del Mirteto · chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo and 2 more
What to eat here 1
Pesto alla Genovese
Where to stay 24
24 places to stay · top rated: BEE HOME 9.6 · Piccolo Hotel Del Lido 9.5
Events & festivals 1
Next up: Feast of the Madonna del Mirteto, Wednesday 8 September
Getting there
Nearest airport: Pisa Galilei, 53 km away
Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideExperiences in Luni
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Luni 1
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What to see in Luni
Luna Rome's marble port: forum, theatre and an amphitheatre for 7,000, at the mouth of the Magra. 
santuario di Nostra Signora del Mirteto In 1537 a painting wept tears of blood: from that grew the sanctuary above Ortonovo. 
chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo Rothari levelled the Byzantine chapel; in the eleventh century Nicola rebuilt on its highest point. 
chiesa di San Lorenzo Built between 1621 and 1645 on the ruins of a castle, a perpetual abbey since 1714. 
anfiteatro romano di Luni An ellipse for 7000: of Luna's amphitheatre only the substructures remain. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Luni
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Luni, but an easy day trip away.
Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola 📍 Carpi · 11 km Jesuit church of 1670-1682 in Carpi, on a Greek-cross plan, with scagliola altars and the diocesan museum. Basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Carpi · 11 km Carpi cathedral begun in 1514 to Peruzzi's design, reopened in 2017 after the 2012 earthquake. Chiesa di Santa Maria in Castello 📍 Carpi · 12 km Romanesque pieve of 1184, the oldest church in Carpi, with a Peruzzi façade and twelfth-century frescoes. Chiesa di San Bernardino da Siena 📍 Carpi · 12 km Patron church of Carpi, begun in 1604, with the reliquary bust of Saint Bernardino of Siena.