Villa Reale di Marlia | Grandi Giardini Italiani

Information

Opening hours
Season 2025

February
weekends only from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., last admission 3:00 p.m.
March 1-October 31: daily
daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., last admission 4:30 p.m.
8 - November 30
weekends and holidays only from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., last admission 3:30 p.m.
6 - December 21
weekends and holidays only from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., last admission 6:00 p.m.

Overtime closures
- 30, 31 (special night opening) October
- 1,2 November

Entrance
Gardens
Full ticket: € 12.00
Concessions*: € 9.00
Kids (up to 9 years): free

Gardens + Museums
Full ticket: € 18.00
Concessions*: € 15.00
Kids (0-13 years): free

*Groups (min. 10 pax), Children (10-17 years), Over 65, FAI/ Touring Club Members

Contact us
Via Fraga Alta, 2
55014 Marlia, Capannori (LU)

T. +39 0583 30108

villarealedimarlia.it

History

The Villa Reale in Marlia, with early medieval origins, was the residence
of noble families and great art patrons who made it a true masterpiece
of landscape over the centuries. At the beginning of the nineteenth century
Princess Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon's sister, extended the magnificent
buildings.

She modernized the old Clock House and built the Twin Buildings which act as entrance, according to contemporary taste, but she left the splendid seventeenth century gardens virtually intact, with the most ancient Green Theatre of Europe (carved out of the vegetation) or the Lemon Garden (with more than 200 citrus pots). She also added the Camellia Walkway, particularly valuable for the rare varieties dating back to the nineteenth century. After the fall of Napoleon, other royal familes owned the property till the count and countess Pecci-Blunt, who bought it in 1924, just in time to stop the destruction of the park. They commissioned the famous French architect, Jacques Greber, to restore the park. They had him replant the grounds, creating the Spanish Garden, the Liberty style Swimming pool, various streams and a lake, that still today complement harmoniously and romantically the series of classic Italian gardens from the times of Orsetti.
The past guests of particular importance at the Villa Reale included the violinist Paganini, numerous members of European royal families and the American painter John Singer Sargent, who did watercolours of the gardens.

In 2015, a young couple, having fallen hopelessly in love with the now neglected complex, bought the property and accepted the challenge of bringing the Villa Reale di Marlia back to its former glory by commissioning important and enormous restoration work on both the buildings and the gardens: since 2019 it is indeed possible also visit the Empire-style interiors of the Villa Reale and since 2021 the eclectic museum of Pecci Blunt's collections (at Clockhouse).

How to get here

By car
From the Highway A11 take the direction Florence, exit Lucca East, Follow the indications for Abetone for 6 km and then the directions for Matraia and Villa Reale. There is a free parking outside the park, near the entrance.

By train
From the Railway Station of Florence Santa Maria Novella take the regional train to Lucca and then bus line 59 up to arrive at the entrance of the park.
Information: www.trenitalia.it

By bus
Line 59 from Lucca: the bus leaves from Piazzale Verdi, passing from the Lucca Railway Station, and makes all stops outside the walls of the city before to reach the park entrance. The admission to the park is discounted for those showing the ticket of public transport.

In aereo
Distance from Galileo Galilei Airport of Pisa: 43 Km
Distanza from Amerigo Vespucci Airport of Florence: 70 Km

Grandi Giardini Italiani Srl

Grandi Giardini Italiani Srl