Palazzo Pfanner (Pfanner Palace), Lucca (must see)

A tourist's dream is to stay in the Principe Federico Suite of the Palazzo Pfanner in Lucca. Prince Frederick of Denmark had trysts with noblewoman Maria Maddalena Trenta in the suite in 1692. The suite offers a princely view of the walls of Lucca and the alluring palace gardens below.

The Moriconi family, silk merchants of Lucca, sold the building to the Controni family in 1680. The Contronis engaged architect Domenico Martinelli to build their monumental grand staircase and galleries. Filippo Juvarra, set designer and landscaper, did the garden.

Felix Pfanner, a brewer from Austria, acquired the property in 1846 and established the first brewery of Lucca. The brewery, situated in the garden, was a pleasant place for brewing and tasting. The brewery closed in 1929.

The grand staircase to the main hall of the palace is sandstone. It has vaults adorned with 18th century frescoes by Bartolomeo de Santi and Lorenzo Castellotti. The walls of the main hall are painted with frescoes painted by Pietro Paolo Scorsini in 1720.

The prime attraction is the garden. It reaches from the monumental staircase to the graceful Lemon House. It encloses two bamboo groves and a green area holding palms and indigenous pines, yews, magnolias, peonies, hydrangeas, begonias, roses and germaniums.

There is a large octagonal basin at the center of a formal garden and marble statues of the ancient gods of Olympus, watching over this little slice of paradise.