Developed in Middle-age and Renaissance in a strategic
position (on the boundaries between Florence and Lucca)
dominated by a castle, Lucchio is a settlement made
of stone surrounded by woods and mountains.
The landscape has been
modeled along centuries by human activities tied to a
subsistence economy: cultivation of chestnut threes and,
shepherdesses, hunt.
In the XX century the hard
relationship between man and nature here has been redefined:
inhabitants emigrated to bigger cities to work in factories;
the population passed from about 800 inhabitants (in 1930)
to the actual 50; two mines, an hydroelectric energy
production plant and an interregional waste compost plant
have grown near the settlement.
Only in summer Lucchio is
a little more populated, by emigrants coming back home for
holidays or by foreigners that bought and repaired some
houses.
More images
on Lucchio:
here
