A former noble residence of the Federated Counts located on the hills that separate the Gulf of La Spezia from the Magra River valley, Villa Ducci welcomes guests in its 18th century structure where the rooms are decorated with period family furniture and precious pieces.
Villa Ducci History
Located at the Croce dei Monti, in the municipality of Areola, on the hills between the gulf of La Spezia and the Magra river valley, Villa Ducci is an eighteenth-century noble residence, former residence of the Federici Counts and then passed in the nineteenth century, following marriage, Ducci family, still owner.
Built on an existing old manor house, later enlarged for family needs and representation, the villa has an austere and imposing exterior structure, almost "monolithic", which opens to the interior in large halls refined by vaults adorned with delicate stuccowork vintage and art nouveau style. Two of these rooms are available to guests as a reading room and for breakfast, plus a more intimate setting, once used as a private chapel by the Federici.
The Bed & Breakfast, run by the son of one of the three sisters Ducci, Giacomo Malagamba, includes three double rooms on the main floor, identified by the respective colors of the walls (red, yellow, blue room). Throughout the house the furniture is cared for and includes family furniture dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries (the oldest ones were destroyed by the looting, in 1799, of the house then inhabited by Count Marcantonio Federici important exponent of Jacobinism and Minister of the Ligurian Republic), prints and ancient geographical maps. A curiosity: one of the halls has in the upper part of a wall a monochrome fresco of the fifties, depicting the Gulf of La Spezia. The fresco, today visibly and inexplicably "cut off", once covered the whole wall; but considered too "cumbersome", in a single night it was hidden half by a layer of white plaster. For those wishing to stay longer in Villa Ducci, you can also rent a flat for four people, located on the top floor.
An ideal stop to get to know a privileged area on the borders between Liguria and Tuscany, you can find the beautiful Ligurian Riviera, the medieval villages and castles of Lunigiana, the wonders of Carrara, Pisa and Lucca and the nearby Lerici and the Gulf. some poets.