In the 16th century, Lucca most important families began to build their country residences in the countryside surrounding the city walls. However, these villas were not restorative places, where the owners could relax and enjoy the pleasures of life: unlike Florentine villas, they actually were real farms.

Following the French taste, the long cypres and evergreen oak alleys surround the master house and hide the appurtenances to the sight of the noble guests.

Together with the "farm-villas" situated in Lucca countryside, Giacomo Puccini`s villas in Torre del Lago and Chiatri and the famous Villa La Versiliana in Marina di Pietrasanta are to be mentioned. In Villa La Versiliana, nowadays the location of many art exhibitions and of a renowned summer theatre festival, lived in 1906 the famous Italian writer Gabriele D`Annunzio.