IL Magazine: Discover the Greatest Retirement Town +6 More SUBSCRIBE NOW AND SAVE 35% about subscribing to International Living Magazine 
When Italy gets under your skin, it's hard to ignore the call of La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life). The country has enchanted me since I first visited in 1972, and so, in 2003—when life finally allowed—my husband Jim and I bought a home there so could we spend part of every year in the country.
Lucca is one of my favorite towns in all of Italy. Its most notable feature, and one of the things I love most about it, is the magnificent wall that surrounds the entire historical center of the town.
Cathy Pegolo loves cities with theaters, music, restaurants, and culture. And she has found all that and more in her new home of Bologna, Italy. Cathy’s Italian heritage inspired her to visit the “old country” and she and her husband, Paul, traveled widely in Italy before finally deciding to buy a place of their own there.