Arrival in Gombitelli

Gombitelli & Lucca

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October 23rd 2010
Today was slated for our dreaded "driving in Italy" experience, as we headed west to try to find the town where my grandfather was born. The night before we panicked a bit, as we "map-quested" the route from Florence to the tiny town of Gombitelli, perched on a mountainside, northwest of Lucca. We could only get the Italian version and found there were 35 lines of complicated directions--despite ... read more

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca

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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI establis... ... read more