Massa

Massa is a city in north-western Tuscany, Italy, at the foot of the Apuan Alps near the Ligurian coast. From the 15th century it was ruled by the Malaspina and later the Cybo-Malaspina families, whose small state with neighbouring Carrara became a duchy and passed to the Duchy of Modena in 1829. It is now the capital of the province of Massa-Carrara.