Liberty style 

Since 1900s, the greatest Tuscan artists have come to Versilia to enjoy the beaches, pine forests and the cooling sea breeze during their holidays. It was the ideal place to relax and gain inspiration for subsequent works of art. For this reason, there are also several architectural works in the domes and turrets decorated with flower-like objects, which were typical of that period.

With the arrival of the squires and the middle-class people, who fled from the heat of cities such as Florence, Lucca and Siena, the bathing establishment in the typical Liberty style began to come to life in Viareggio, all contributing to the value of artists who used these local craftsmen to complete their works of art. 

The Grand Caffè Margherita, the Balena bathing settlement, the Caffè Concerto Eden and several other palaces are all decorated with lacquer and ceramics, typical of the 1920s and 1930s. 

After Galileo Chini (the painter) worked in Bangkok and founded the community ‘Arte della Ceramica’ (Ceramics Art), he contributed by adding oriental lounges and walls of luxurious palaces in Viareggio. Nowadays these buildings are very expensive hotels that have tried over the years to keep as many of the artistic details intact as possible, the same did Villa Giulia. Some of these include ‘the holiday home’ of Galileo Chini, in Lido di Camaiore, where the original paintings and frescoes can still be found in a gallery-museum dedicated to this painter.