È located a few minutes drive from Lucca. A high gate anticipates the entrance but it is necessary to take numerous steps to be able to see it in the distance. And then here it is suddenly revealing itself from a panoramic space. Villa Marlia is a noble residence with formal rigor, abundantly refined in the interiors and in the unique gardens.
Villa Marlia, the history
The result of a recent restoration, Villa Marlia is today a noteworthy site. Its story begins when Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, decides to buy the pre-existing property. It was a seventeenth-century mansion that the previous Orsetti family had originally built in late Renaissance style. Of the same today there remain interesting contributions in the park: such as the Verzura theater, lemon garden , clock tower. When in 1806 Bonaparte, Princess of Lucca, bought the building, the villa changed its face. A marked neoclassical taste gives a renewed look to the house.
As well as new interventions involve changes to the green. The park is a real surprise, comparable to "natural rooms" that follow one another. The garden, the avenue of camellias, the intimate Hispano-Moorish garden. A refined woman and a lover of beauty, Elisa also wanted to incorporate the nearby one into the vast green area cave of Pan. A nymphaeum with stone and limestone decorations dedicated to the God Pan, where water games once took place. The same fate befell the bishop's house which with its panoramic terrace overlooks a Italian garden.
Even the interior spaces clearly show Elisa's taste, with delightful rooms dedicated to music and games. The choice of creating a separate building intended for servants was particular. The same was connected to the villa through an underground corridor. A ploy to prevent the smells of the kitchen from affecting the air of the villa. With the fall of Napoleon, the residence was assigned to Carlo Ludovico di Borbone and then subsequently purchased, in 1923, by the Pecci-Blunt Counts. In the latter period, new restoration works began on the gardens which acquired a more romantic aspect. THE streams, artificial lake from which to admire the villa, i groves. And even thesports area where the swimming pool is located, equipped with changing rooms, in which Salvador Dalì bathed several times.
Crossroads of artists
It certainly was during the ownership of the Pecci-Blunts that Villa Marlia became a place of a certain cultural ferment. Visited by famous artists who spent pleasant moments of relaxation here. The aforementioned Dalì, as well as the writer Alberto Moravia who delighted in the game of croquet. Used during the summer months, the house hosted famous and rising talents thanks to the sensitivity of the Countess Anna Laetitia. The cultural importance of Villa Marlia grew so much that it aroused the interest of particularly prominent personalities. Jacqueline Kennedy and the Dukes of Windsor. Without forgetting that, previously, the musician Paganini he had frequented the abode several times. What better place to perform?
The theater of greenery, previously appointed, it is among the most curious points of Villa Marlia. Dated to the seventeenth century, it is the oldest in Europe and was commissioned by the Orsetti. Its structure is surprising as it marries the need to create everything a theater needs with nature. An important role is that of the hedges, articulated in a clever system of walls and corridors, accompanied the actors before entering the scene. At the base of the stage there is the compartment for the prompter while the terracotta statues of the commedia dell'arte dominate the bottom of the stage. Pulcinella, Colombina and Pantalone. Telling the story of Villa Marlia is certainly not enough; there are beauties that need to be looked at with your own eyes. This is the case of the prestigious Lucca house.
