Villa Bottini

This guide to Villa Bottini in Lucca follows a Renaissance garden through the hands of the Buonvisi banking family, who built it in the fifteen hundreds with a nymphaeum by Bernardo Buontalenti and a ceiling by Ventura Salimbeni promising the family a shortcut to glory. From there it moves to Napoleon's sister Elisa Bonaparte, who ruled Lucca and made the garden her own until her brother's empire collapsed in eighteen fourteen. You'll also meet Marianna Bottini, a musician whose guests reportedly included the violinist Niccolo Paganini. Stand in the loggia and consider how many owners this one garden has already outlasted.