Villa Mansi

This guide to Villa Mansi in Lucca turns on Lucida Mansi, a noblewoman who married into wealth as a girl, ruled this house as a young widow, and filled its private chamber with mirrors instead of portraits. It follows the old Lucca legend that grew around her, and the morning, the story goes, when she caught the first wrinkle in the glass. The guide sets that legend against what actually happened to her, and against the baroque garden built here a century later by the architect Filippo Juvarra. Look for the single long pool that still traces his original design.