Villa Garzoni (Collodi)

The garden was built shortly before 1652[1] by the Garzoni family, relating to the site of the old castle, which stands slightly apart, closely associated with the village that nestles round it, on the edge of a clifflike slope, which had been chosen in earlier times for its defensible approach.

At each terrace level, side walk past fantastically clipped yew blend imperceptibly with the wooded slope.

Its cascade, which the exigencies of the site prevented from alignment with the main axis, has been called one of two "culminating High Baroque statements" of the trends toward drama and spectacle.

[4] The gardens were originally laid out by 1652,[5] and were completed during the course of the century, at the end of which they were already famous.

[6] When Filippo Juvarra found himself at Lucca in 1714, he made a rapid bravura pen-and-ink sketch for a scenographic enlargement of the Palazzina dell'Orologio (the Clock Casino) that remained on paper as one of his many off-the-cuff pensieri.