Villa Anna Maria de’ Lanfranchi – art show

1st June 2018

This important 17th century, privately owned villa lies between Lucca and Pisa. Nearby, just 2km away, is the small town and royal baths of San Giuliano Terme. The enclosed villa on three floors is run by artist Claudio Zeppi and his wife as an exclusive B&B and summer refuge for like-minded guests. It offers unique accommodation, both within the villa and the extensive gardens that contain ancient and important trees and plants. Claudio, as a genial host, was the ideal person, with the ideal venue, for my first painting exhibition outside Lucca.

The painting exhibition involved displaying 20 oil paintings on canvas, of work I had produced over the past twenty-five years. With the help of Claudio, Jan and Norma from Grapevine, we able to set up the paintings in the garden, since the weather was bright and sunny that weekend.

I was pleased that several good friends were able to attend the exhibition, that on the Sunday were also treated to some piano-playing by good friend Arnold and some opera singing by friends Mattia and Michelle in the first-floor grand salon.

To understand further the history of the villa and what it offers, I can recommend their excellent website www.villaannamaria.com that illustrates what a superb venue it is there.

I was able to leave many paintings there for the rest of the summer, since Claudio said they would be much appreciated by his guests and would complement the vast array of objet d’art and other fascinating artefacts and curios his has in his collection.