Lucca

Town in Tuscany, northwest Italy, on the River Serchio, 60 km/37 mi northwest of Florence; population (2001) 81,900. Industries include weaving, food-processing, engineering, and the manufacture of chemicals. It was an independent republic from 1160 until its absorption into Tuscany in 1847. The composer Giacomo Puccini was born here.

There is a cathedral (11th–15th centuries), palaces, and 16th–17th-century ramparts, now converted into a promenade.

History Lucca was colonized by the Romans in 177 BC, and it was a municipium (free town) by 90 BC. In 53 BC it was the scene of a conference between Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, at which Caesar's command in Gaul was prolonged for five years. The town was celebrated for its silk trade from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Napoleon I made it into a principality for his sister, Marianne Elise.

Lucca

Province of central Italy in northeast Tuscany region; capital Lucca; area 1,773 sq km/685 sq mi; population (2000 est) 375,100.