Free Republic

A senior official at the Islamic University in Lucca, Italy published a series of controversial Facebook posts, blasting the Italian Prime Minister and demanding “a final solution” for Zionists. The official, Rafelo Vilni, condemned Zionism, saying “there needs to be a final solution for Zionists,” adding that “real Jews are the victims of Zionism”. The post was later deleted, but not before the Israeli Embassy in Italy captured a screenshot of the message. Vilni also posted a comment slamming Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. .....

Huge Etruscan Road Brought to Light By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News The Excavated Road June 16, 2004 — A plain in Tuscany destined to become a dump has turned out to be an archaeologist's dream, revealing the biggest Etruscan road ever found. Digging in Capannori, near Lucca, archaeologist Michelangelo Zecchini has uncovered startling evidence of an Etruscan "highway" which presumably linked Etruscan Pisa, on the Tyrrhenian coast, to the Adriatic port of Spina. Passing through Bologna, the ancient "two-sea highway" runs just a few meters away from today's modern highway which links Florence to the Tyrrhenian coast. "It all started...

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of a Roman presence long before the traditonal date of Roman settlement in 180 BCE - corroborating Roman historian Livy's account of the great Carthaginian general Hannibal passing through Lucca in 217 BCE... The discovery came after other finds last year which highlighted how Lucca thrived because of its strategic position on the main road that led towards Gaul. Among the treasures turned up were the remains of a well-preserved 2nd-century BC Roman house. Other digs have traced Lucca's beginnings under the Etruscans, a people who once ruled much of central Italy including Rome. Lucca's foundation...

MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian man who packed his bags 44 years ago and told friends he was leaving for America was found dead inside one of the walls of his home. An American woman who recently bought the house near Lucca in northern Tuscany discovered the body Tuesday as she was carrying out renovations, police said. Inside a thick wall in the cellar the woman found human remains, two packed suitcases, a trowel and other equipment to make a wall, a rusted rifle and a bottle with a suicide note. The note, on paper headed with the name Nemo...