The commune of Lucca, located in Tuscany in northwest Italy, is an amazing walled city with a population of 7,000 within the walls and about 80,000 residents living outside. According to Wikipedia, it was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The streets are paved with rectangular dark grey stone slabs . The buildings are constructed of flat hardcover book sized sun-baked bricks topped with aged clay roof tiles. For such a small place, there are dozens of churches, some in better states of restoration than others. Even more interesting is that the lovely painted stucco palazzos are often in a state of decay inside. Despite the lovely warm weather we…

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