‘Buenos dias Serena!’, Dunja warmly welcomes me at her villa on Versilia hills, a three stories historical building, whose bell tower was famous to Giacomo Puccini, surrounded by a lush countryside topped by olive groves, at the back of Viareggio on northern Tuscany coast. What a great way to start the day, fresh coffee, Spanish pumpkin cookies and a marvellous view on the Tyrrhenian sea stretching from La Spezia Gulf to Leghorn, allowing to spot the holy dome and leaning tower in Pisa in clear days such as this one is… Dunja’s family is half Italian by father’ side and half Spanish on her mother’ s and it represents a perfect mix of culture and traditions, not only for its origins, but also because it is present owner and took up a long and refined restoration of a former Spanish-Bourbon villa. The House of Bourbon-Parma is an Italian cadet branch of the Spanish House of Bourbons. They governed over Lucca from 1815 to 1847, when Lucca passed under the Grand duchy of Tuscany, but spent in the Lucca and Versilia area long periods of their childhood and maturity.

‘I cannot disclose the recipe of the biscuits to anyone, as I do not know it either… my mom will convey it to me when she’ll pass away… ’ and she points two fingers down as on a typical Spanish –Italian good luck gesture laughing hearty… She is a brilliant, genuine and friendly woman, who leads her villa, gardens, pool and 4,5 hectares of land like a general officer, planning every single detail and ruling gently over her staff. ‘The Empress Zita and Robert, son of Charles III, spent various periods of the year in this villa and had several contacts with locals. It’s said that Robert was often looked after by some nannies from the close village of Bargecchia and they loved to take walks on the even terraces amid olive trees to refresh and breath healthy sea breeze’. As Dunja talks enthusiastically about the villa and its heritage and guides me around the property, I am stricken by the huge work of preservation that has been done here from the year of restoration in 2000. In turn of knocking down ruins and build a majestic, modern villa, although preserving the façade by law, the Gobbi-Benelli family took the steep hallway of ‘artistic preservation’ to bring back the villa to old splendor.

‘I feel myself fortunate for being able to share this beauty with my offsprings, although I fear this huge inheritance which demands great attention and care’, and before she finishes to utter the sentence, she unlocks the front door and allows some morning sun rays to find their way into the so called ‘Frescoes room’… you cannot understand what luxury is till you do not see such examples of art and beauty… ‘In occasion of Charles III with Luisa Maria of Berry wedding, the family assigned to a painter from Lucca known as " Diavoletto " (little devil),’ Dunia stops a few secs casting a look around the room as if under a dome, ‘ ...the task to paint a room in the villa in order to make it look like a hunting lodge, of the type that could be found in the local marshes of Massaciuccoli lake, where also Giacomo Puccini enjoyed hunting. This is a true statement of the family's passion for this activity’.

I believe Little Devil did his job right, as you really feel as if you were standing inside a hunting lodge, where three-dimensionality and shadows play a dramatically vivid effect, almost dragging you back to those times and expecting somebody to thread on bearing some coots or pheasants. ‘It’s unbelievable how much cultural heritage in Italy may hide behind any corner even where unexpected… ’ says Dunja, who is graduated in conservation of cultural heritage studies and is very attentive and respectful for the historical inheritance of her villa. As we reach for the ‘blue room’, where pottery and antique glassware are perfectly arranged on the four-walls light blue shelves, I am almost dumbstruck… thinking what if nobody had taken care of this, putting efforts, energies and lots of money into restoration and strenuous preservation… one among many Italian similar stories…

The Bourbons did love Lucca area and invested into several construction projects both on the hills and by the sea. Some larger villas have in fact been inherited by the local municipalities both in Camaiore and Viareggio. I spend the rest of the morning visiting the rest of the villa toured around by Dunja, stopping from now and then to give instructions to the gardener, talking to her staff and lovingly sharing her todos with her mom… to my disappointment there is no way I can get the pumpkin biscuits recipe out of her mom’s cookbook… so I resolve myself to go back to the villa more often…

Driving back to work, I summon up my villa inspection as follows: as a wedding planner, I can make this villa the perfect venue for many couples enjoying the breathtaking view from its garden and terraces; as a travel consultant I can turn this villa as the perfect setting for cooking classes, yoga retreats or painting sessions; as a woman I am proud to be on the same side of the barricades in Italy and Tuscany as Dunja is in preserving our history, our roots.