Villa Grabau

This guide to Villa Grabau near Lucca sets two theatres against each other: a ground floor hall where nineteenth century painter Francesco Bianchi tricked the eye with painted curtains so convincing the room still bears their name, and a real, clipped boxwood stage growing in the gardens outside. It follows the villa into the hands of German banker Rodolfo Schwartze, who married into the Grabau family in 1868, and his brother in law, a Florentine painter connected to the rebel Macchiaioli. Look closely at the ceiling nymphs before you step outside to the living stage they answer.