VILLA REALE Gardens of Villa Reale, Marlia, Lucca
The original building is very old. During the Longobard age it was the mansionry of the Dukes of Tuscia, and later on, of the most important Lucchese families. In 1651 the villa was bought by the Orsetti family, who kept it until Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte took a fancy to the villa; she forced them to go away and turned the villa into the mirror of her regalness. Marvellous and surprising is the XVII century park, with its "water theatre" , its lemon garden and its "theatre of verdure". After the fall of Napoleon the Villa Reale had by turns periods of splendour and decadence, that lasted until the beginning of our century when it was bought by the present owners, who undertook its complete renovation.
The Villa Reale (Via Fraga Alta, Marlia, 5 kilometers from Lucca, tel: (39-0583) 30-108) features a guided tour of its vast gardens on mornings and late afternoons, except Monday, always on the hour.

VILLA MANSI
Villa Mansi is the pride and the symbol of the Lucchese architecture concerning the villas. It stands out from the other villas by its magnificence and by a certain mannerism, almost a sort of baroque. The present look of Villa Mansi is due to the architect Maurizio Oddi who worked on the rearrangement of the preexistent building by appointment of Countess Cenami during the years 1634-35.
Later on there were new interventions that further enriched the villa and most of all the garden. In 1675 the property of the villa went to the Mansi family; they entrusted the great architect Filippo Juvarra with the task of renovating the garden. The whole park was thus transformed by his genius into the perfect scenery of many a suggestive legend. The gardens and ground floor of the Villa Mansi, with its Baroque facade, are part of one of the most exquisite villas in the area (Segromigno in Monte, near Marlia; Phone: (39-0583) 920-234, closed at lunchtime).

VILLA TORRIGIANI
Situated in Camigliano, on the lovely hills surrounding the town of Lucca, Villa Torrigiani is well-known for its long (almost 1 km) and majestic cypress avenue, its gate with many ornaments, the medieval little suburbs with guard turrets at the entrance and the grand Baroque facade, one of the best example of Baroque architecture in Tuscany. The villa and its park sum up all the splendour and magnificence of the lucchese tradition of the country mansion-houses. The long and monumental avenue leading to the villa is all lined with cypresses, and has a pompous gate from where the facade can be seen, so rich and adorned that it seems to be embroidered on the stone and the marble, in a triumph of niches, statues and balaustrades.
The original building dates back to 1500, but it was radically rearranged a century later by Maurizio Oddi, the same architect that had so deeply transformed villa Mansi . The "garden of Flora" is the clearest example of the Lucchese taste, a bright and surprising ensemble of grottoes, nymph temples, flowers, masks play of water that make you feel as if you were in a fairy-tale.

VILLA GRABAU
Situated on the slopes of the Lucca hills, the villa is a wonderful example of 19th century neo-classical architecture. It was built during the 1400s on the ruins of a medieval village owned by the Diodati family, but radical changes were made to the villa's structure at the beginning of the 1800s.
The nine hectare park is one of the most interesting in the Lucca area because of the English garden, with a large number of rare plants, the Box Hedge Theatre, and the magnificent lemon house where are over 100 lemon trees. Also to be admired are the beautiful white marble statues, the cheerful fountains, the grotesque statues, and the mosaic-decorated fountains.

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