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Villa Torrigiani and its park, dating back to the early XVI century and originally belonging to the Buonvisi family, were eventually purchased by the Marquis Nicolao Santini. The ambassador of the Republic of Lucca to the court of Louis XIV made significant changes, quite obviously inspired the architecture of Versailles. The park and gardens were enriched with sumptuous details: flowered parterres and large pools with surprising water features. Since the XIX century, the park has taken on a much more romantic look with several new specimens of plants from all over the world.
A magnificent avenue of cypresses leads to the majestic Baroque facade of the Villa, inside which the rich original furnishings and decorative frescoes by Pietro Scorzini are still perfectly preserved.

In 1816, Vittoria Santini married Pietro Guadagni, who took the name of his mother Torrigiani to inherit the family properties and the title of Marquis when the ancient family from Florence was left with no other male heirs.

Today, the Villa is still a heritage of an ancient lineage thanks to the marriage between the Marquise Simonetta Torrigiani and the Prince of Stigliano Don Carlo Colonna, in 1937.

The current garden is the result of transformations that took place in the XIX century on the previous XVII century layout. The new arrangement tried to preserve the strict relationship between the building and the garden: that goal was eventually achieved by keeping the symmetrical order of the XVII century French garden, with a parterre divided into several flower beds.
In front of the two facades, two large lawns were created, surrounded by tall trees, while the sides of the buildings remained untouched.

The left part of the park was kept wild with an octagonal fishpond inside, while the right one was designed according to a regular layout with different sections. The latter were used to house galleries, statues, fountains and a parterre with an aviary for exotic birds.

On the back of the villa, there was a tree-lined gallery of fountains and statues inside some niches, now almost completely lost, apart from a statue of Saturn. Today, the back of the villa has an exquisite rural flavour, as if it was a gateway to the cultivated areas in the hills, connected to an avenue of olive trees (Olea spp.).

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)