Destination Tuscany.

Some 300 hundreds opulent residences were built in the city of Lucca, between the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most of them have crumbled away , have been abandoned or are not accessible to the public today but you will find at least a dozen fine examples of these beautiful villas still standing proud northeast of Lucca.
Villa Reale in Marlia, about 7 kms from Lucca is to my view one of the most striking villa and is owed to the tastes of Elisa Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon and short lived ruler of Tuscany. Only the gardens can be visited from March to November.
Villa Grabau located just north in San Pancranzio is surrounded by hectares of parkland with traditional English and Italian styled gardens as well as more than a hundred terra cotta vases of lemon trees and the Casa di lemoni, a lemon house still used to store lemons .
In the same village, the gardens of villa Oliva,summer residence of the Oliva family is worth a peep. A romantic cypress alley, lime and eucalyptus trees and stables reckoned to be more beautiful that those at Versailles.