The mysterious story of Lucida Mansi

The ghost of Lucida Mansi is one of the most famous in Tuscany, so much so that she is one of the main characters wandering around Borgo Mozzano during the Halloween Celebration! But who was Lucida Mansi? She was a dissolute noblewoman from Lucca who lived between 1606 and 1646. It seems that she killed her husband in order to be free to enjoy her many lovers. The disturbing thing is that the same fate also affected her lovers! After their love encounters, she would throw them down a trap door covered in sharp blades.

Lucida was particularly beautiful and obsessed by her own beauty. It seems that her house was full of mirrors and that there was even one between the prayer book and another above the bed so that she could fall asleep whilst looking at her own image. The problems started when all those mirrors began to reveal the first wrinkles. Unfortunately, in those days botox injections and face-lifts were still not available. She therefore resorted to selling her soul to the devil in exchange for thirty years during which she would never age.

Everything went fine until the fateful date of August 14, 1646, the day on which the pact expired. Lucida tried in vain to escape her fate by climbing the clock tower to try and to stop the clock. The plan failed and at midnight the devil turned up and loaded her onto a burning carriage. This traveled at full speed along the walls and at one point swayed and dropped Lucida into the small lake of the Botanical Garden located in one of the most mysterious places in Lucca. And now is when the legend begins: the face of Lucida can still be seen at the bottom of the lake while the ghost of the beautiful noblewoman appears in almost all the properties of the Mansi family. But that’s not the end of it! On full moon nights on the walls you can still see the burning carriage! All you have to do is plan to come to Lucca during the next full moon so you can find out if it's true. If you like spooky stories, try our ‘Scary Florence’ tour, heart-racing is guaranteed!