Europe Travel Guide

Forl (4413? N 1202? E)is a city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. In Ancient Rome, it was called Forum Livii, after Livius Salinator, who perhaps founded it in 188 BC

Frosinone is the capital of Frosinone Province in Italy.

Genoa (Italian Genova, Genoese Zena, French Gnes) is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. It has a population of ca. 650,000.

Genua was a city of the ancient Ligurians. Its name is probably Ligurian, meaning “knee” (from Proto-Indo-European *genu ‘knee’), i.e. “angle”, from its geographical position, thus akin to the name of Geneva. Alternatively, the name has been claimed to derive from Latin Janua (“gate”), the two-headed god Janus, or an ancient word that means “foreigners”, as the early settlers were considered foreign by the neighbouring population..

History
Genoa’s history goes back to ancient times. A city cemetery, dating from the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., testifies to the occupation of the site by the Greeks, but the fine harbour probably was in use much earlier. Destroyed by the Carthaginians in 209 BC, the town was rebuilt by the Romans, who used it as a base during their wars with Liguria. Under the Romans, the city enjoyed municipal rights and exported skins, wood, and honey.

Gorizia (Slovenian Gorica, German Grz, Friulian Gurize) is a small town (pop. 40,000) at the foot of the Alps, in NE Italy, on the border with Slovenia. It is the capital of Gorizia province, and is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. The town has a 11th-century fortress, a Gothic cathedral (14th century, rebuilt 17th century), and the Church of St. Ignatius (16801725).

Originally a watchtower or a prehistoric castle, Gorizia soon became a little village near the fords of the river Isonzo not far from one of the most important ways that during the Roman period linked Aquileia to Emona (Lubiana). The name of Gorizia was for the first time recorded in a document dated April 28th 1001 “quae sclavonica lingua vocatur Goritia” stating the donation of the Castle and the village of Gorizia made by Emperor Otto III to Patriarch Giovanni II and to Count Verihen. Since the 11th century the town had two different development plans: the castellan hamlet or superior land and the village or inferior land. The first played a political-administrative role and the second a rural-commercial role.

Grosseto is a town and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Grosseto province, 4246? N 1107? E, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, at 10 m (33 ft) above sea-level, with 71,400 inhabitants as of the 2003 census.

Iglesias (pop. 29,075) is a comune of Carbonia-Iglesias province in Sardinia, Italy. Situated at 620 ft in the hills in the southwest of Sardinia, it is a center of a mining district, with lead, zinc, and silver being extracted, as well as for the distillation of sulfuric acid.

Iglesias’ cathedral dates from 1288, the castle from 1325; the Church of San Francesco is from the 15th century and a fine example of Gothic architecture.

The Imperia is a statue at the entrance of the harbour of Constance, reminding of the Council of Constance that took place here between 1414 and 1418. The concrete statue is 10 meters high, weighes 18 tonnes, and stands on a pedestal that rotates around its axis once every three minutes. It was created by Peter Lenk and errected in 1993.

Isernia is a town and comune in the southern Italian region of Molise, 4146N, 1414E at 423 m (1388 ft) above sea level. It is the capital of Isernia province. The commune has a surface of 68.74 sq. km, and a 2003 population of 21.300.

Situated on a rocky crest rising from 350 mt to 475 between the Carpino and the Sorsi rivers, Isernia still reflects with its road plan the ancient structure of the Roman town, with a central wide street and side streets on both sides. It is now the Capital city of the province of Isernia, and a flourishing center of pasta makers, stone work, embroidery crafts. The name of the town come from the italic root “aiser” meaning “god”.

Lucca was founded by the Etruscans and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical center preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza S. Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum.

Plundered by Odoacer, Lucca appears as an important city and fortress at the time of Narses, who besieged it for three months in AD. 553, and under the Lombards it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. It became prosperous through the silk trade that got a start in the 11th century, to rival the silks of Byzantium. In the 10th and 11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margravate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.

After the death of the famous Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter of 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca was an independent republic. There were many minor feudatories in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dantes Divine Comedy include many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante himself spent some of his exile in Lucca.

Macerata is a town and provincial capital in the Marche region of Italy.

Sites
The centro storico is located on a hill between the Chiente and Potenza rivers. Together with the modern town, sprawling on the plain below, it has a population of about 41,000. There is a lift (elevator) connecting the two towns. It is solid but unostentatious, being built between the 1600s and 1900s. In the central Piazza della Libert there is the Loggia dei Mercanti with two-tier arcades dating from the Renaissance.

There are a number of striking pallazzi, mostly along Corso Matteoti. Next to the Loggia dei Mercanti, Corso della Rupubblica leads to Piazza Vittorio Veneto where, in the Palazzo Ricci, there is a museum and art gallery – a must-see is the Madonna and Child by Carlo Crivelli. Another museum is the Museo delle Carrozze (carriages).

the cathedral dates form the 1100s.

There is a University (founded in 1540) and an Art school, and therefore, Jazz clubs and the like.