Villa Reale celebrates the Lucchese September with the splendor of its architecture and gardens
Villa Reale di Marlia joins the tradition of the Lucchese September, offering visitors its breathtaking views, its architecture, and the fairy-tale spaces of its gardens bathed in the special light of the last days of summer and the first days of autumn. Even Princess Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi loved spending September in Marlia: the chronicles tell how on Thursday, September 24, 1807, a Court Ball was held in the then ‘imperial’ villa, while on the following Sunday, September 27, a concert by the great Niccolò Paganini, the virtuoso who was later hailed as the world’s greatest violinist in European theaters and courts, was organized.
The visit to Villa Reale is always a journey through space and time: the Renaissance with the Pan’ Grotto – one of the oldest nymphaeums in Italy, recently restored, the ancient Bishop’s villa which was a medieval castle transformed into the residence of the Lucca bishops. The Baroque with masterpieces of green architecture, the fishponds, Italian-style gardens, the Water Theatre, and the Green Theatre – the oldest in Europe. The Romanticism with the great landscape garden, the small lake, and its changing foliage scenes through the seasons, the Villa with its elegant Neoclassical furnishings. And then the exotic Spanish garden in Moorish tradition and various corners of the park where artists and international intellectuals were often hosted by the Pecci Blunt family.
In the Clock House, visitors can admire the eclectic and fascinating collections with relics of Pope Leo XIII, the pope of modernity and the ‘Rerum Novarum’, items belonging to the great patron Anna Laetitia (Mimì) Pecci-Blunt, and an exhibition dedicated to her figure. A great place of characters and inspirations, blending nature, art, and history, where visitors can spend hours exploring the 16 hectares of the park, resting, and sipping cocktails at the Cafè Villa Reale or savoring the tranquility of the place accompanied by a dessert.
