Lucca is a city of secrets. It takes a long time to get under its skin, if you ever can.
And not strictly a secret but little known fact is that Italy’s first Mason was Lucchese born.
A statue of Francesco Geminiani is located in the lovely often overlooked Piazza Guidiccioni, also home to the city archives.
A noted violinist and composer, he died in Dublin in 1762, he was concert master at Naples Opera, played for George I in London with Handel riding shotgun on keyboard, and was a not-so-good art dealer, getting into debt.
In 1725 he became the first Italian to be initiated into Freemasonry when he joined the Queen’s Head Lodge in London and in 1728 formed the first Italian masonic lodge in Naples.
But don’t tell anyone.
