Caviano is a former municipality of the district Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 25 April 2010 the former municipalities of Caviano, Contone, Gerra Gambarogno, Indemini, Magadino, Piazzogna, San Nazzaro, Sant'Abbondio and Vira Gambarogno merged to form the new municipality of Gambarogno.
Cavigliano
Cavigliano is a former municipality of the district Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 14 April 2013 the former municipalities of Cavigliano, Tegna and Verscio merged to form the new municipality of Terre di Pedemonte.
Cerentino
Cerentino is a municipality of the district Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Certara
Certara is a former municipality of the district Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 14 April 2013 the former municipalities of Bogno, Cadro, Carona, Certara, Cimadera, Valcolla and Sonvico merged into the city of Lugano.
Cevio
Cevio is the capital of the district Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 22 October 2006, Cevio became bigger when it came together with the villages of Bignasco and Cavergno. Both were municipalities of Ticino before this coming together.
Cevio can be found about 23 kilometers northwest of the city of Locarno in the upper Vallemaggia. Most of the area of the municipality, about 64 percent, is covered with trees. About 25 percent of the area has mountains. Only 5 percent of the langer is used for farming.
Cevio has been the main town of the district for a long time. In 1858, the municipality of Linescio broke off from it.
In the fall of 2006, the villages of Cavergno and Bignasco were put into the municipality, even though Bignasco did not want to do so.
The inhabitants of Cevio speak using a language that is different from the Italian.
Bignasco
Bignasco is a village in the district of Vallemaggia, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. Bignasco is not a free municipality anymore after merging with another village to become Cevio.
Cavergno
Cavergno is a village in the district of Vallemaggia, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. Cavergno is not a free municipality anymore after merging with the village Bignasco to form the municipality Cevio.
Lucca
Lucca is a city in the Italian region of Tuscany. The city is on the river Serchio in a very fertile plain near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca.
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans. It later became a Roman village in 180 BC. The Romans built an amphitheatre that is still seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses attacked it over and over again for several months in 553. During the 10th and 11th centuries, Lucca was the capital of the feudal territories of Tuscany, with more power about the Roman Emperor.
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began an independent commune. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor communes in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany (which was filled by the Malaspina). Tuscany in this time was part of feudal Europe. Dante’s "Divine Comedy" was written to remember the days spent in his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277, Lucca was ruled by a Guelph (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, after internal problems Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa make himself lord of Lucca. The people of the city made him leave two years later and "condottiere" gain the leadership. In 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Lucca soldiers defeated Florence's Guelphs with the help of Castracani, a leader of the city in time of war. After they won, Castracani was named "Duke of Lucca" by Louis IV the Bavarian. Until the French Revolution in 1789, Lucca was independent from Venice and Genoa. It was a city controlled by democracy or sometimes by oligarchy.
Lucca was the second largest Italian city-state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune"). In 1805 Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in the place reserved for the "Queen of Etruria". The city became a part of Tuscany in 1847 and later a part of Italy.
The walls around the old town are intact as the city grew and became more modern. This is unusual for cities in the region. A famous place is the house where Puccini was born. The house is open to the public.
There are many churches in Lucca:
Other sights include:
Every year in Lucca there are two important festivals. The Lucca Summer Festival is a rock music festival. "Lucca Comics and Games" is the largest meeting about comics and games of Italy.
Massa
Massa is a town and "comune" in Tuscany, Italy, in the centre of province of Massa-Carrara. It is in the northern part of the Tuscany region.
Massa is near the sea, and has a population of approximately 69,000 inhabitants, distributed in five areas.
The Massa area has a high number of touristists, and it's famous for concentration of some 600 industrial and craft activities where are working about 7,000 people.
Together with the twin town of Carrara, Massa is worldwide known for the extraction and production of marble.
From the 15th to the 19th century, Massa was the capital of the independent Principate (later Duchy) of Massa and Carrara, controlled and ruled by the Malaspina and Cybo-Malaspina families.
In 1829, the city was handed by the Austrian Este family. In 1859, during the unification of Italy process, it joined the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Massa's attractions include:
Carrara
Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara (Tuscany, Italy), famous for white or blue-gray marble, and for being a city "symbol" of international anarchism.
Carrara was ruled by Pisa in (1235), Lucca in (1322), Genoa in (1329), and Milan in (1343). After Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan died in 1477, Carrara was controlled by Tommaso Campogregoso, lord of Sarzana, and the Malaspina family.
Carrara and Massa made up the Duchy of Massa and Carrara from the 15th to the 19th century.
In 1929, the cities of Carrara, Massa and Montignoso were mixed in a single big city, called "Apuania". In 1945 "Apuania", was separated, and the cities, were returned free.
Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome for buildings, like the Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome. Many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's "David", were made from Carrara marble.
The city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuaries and antiquities. The local marble is exported around the world.
298 Baptistina
298 Baptistina is a common Main belt asteroid. It was found by Auguste Charlois on September 9, 1890 in Nice.
Although it has an orbit similar to the Flora family asteroids, it was found to be an unrelated asteroid.
A 2007 US-Czech study decided that 298 Baptistina may be the biggest remnant of a 170 km (110 mile) asteroid that was destroyed about 160 million years ago in an impact with a smaller body, making the Baptistina family of asteroids and that the Baptistina event may have created the eventual impact asteroid believed by many to have caused the K/T extinction event about 65 million years ago. This is the K/T impactor believed to be shown in the geological record. This theory has not, as yet, found general acceptance among the scientific community.
VLC media player
VLC media player (also known as VLC or VideoLAN Client) is a free software media player by the VideoLAN project.
It is a highly portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer that supports many kinds of audio and video. VLC can repair and play corrupt files, damaged or unfinished.
It is one of the most platform-independent players, available for BeOS, BSD, Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Windows CE, and has over 50 million downloads for version 0.8.6.