Notolini Aqueduct, Lucca IT

An early morning bike ride to Notolini Aqueduct outside city walls. Maria Luisa of Spain and Duchess of Lucca commissioned the architect Notolini to build an aqueduct in 1823. The Romanesque aqueduct was completed 30 years later. Water was conveyed by gravity flow from springs in Monte di Vorno to domed circular stone cisterns and through a stone channel supported by 400 arches over 3 km to the fountains in Lucca, until the aqueduct was interrupted in 1928-1932 when Mussolini built the autostrada. Spring water still flows out of the fountains in Lucca but conveyed by underground pipes instead of the elegant 19th c aqueduct.