The historic villas of the Livorno hills

In the 18th and 19th centuries the rich bourgeoisie of Livorno, made up mainly of Dutch, Armenian, Jewish, Greek, English or French merchants (who left many traces of themselves in many of today's surnames and toponyms) loved to have holiday homes built, i.e. the " villas", outside the city walls of the time, often in the strip of land outside the eastern suburbs and on the hills (Monterotondo, Montenero, Valle Benedetta) sought after for their views and healthy air.
From the eighteenth century onwards, important figures of art and culture lived there for some time and often composed their works there: Goldoni, Foscolo, Mascagni, Byron, Shelley, Smollet, Thorvaldsen... and there were short stays by crowned heads like the young Napoleon III or the future Pope Leo XIII.
To these suburban villas, in the second half of the nineteenth century and until the twenty years following the Belle Époque, others were added, favoring the south-western area of the city (which had further expanded) and above all the seafront.
Nowadays, some of these buildings, with the expansion of Livorno, are now incorporated into the city and their parks have been greatly reduced; others, over time, due to abandonment, bombings or reckless urban renovations, have been destroyed or demolished or left to themselves in partial or total degradation; others, more, have been transformed into public buildings or modern private condominiums