Walking on along Via Elisa, we find on the right Villa Buonvisi, built by Paolo Buonvisi in 1566 inside the sixteenth-century circle of walls in an area kept for vegetable gardens. It was early called "Villa" because it was surrounded by a garden of exceptional beauty.

Owing to its characteristics the building is such a wonderful example of Renaissance architecture that it influenced even the construction of the other villas of Lucca. Coming inside through the main entrance (Via Elisa), we are immediately struck by the sobriety of the architectonic elements of the complex, made up of a parallelepiped with a loggia on top on one side and a high open gallery (closed with glass windows) on the other side, the residence with the garden and the access to the little water lilies lake, built according to a project of Buontalenti.

Three artists worked on the construction of the villa: the builder Bernardino Buonvisi, Vincenzo Civitali (to whom the project of the portal and the windows of the surrounding wall is attributed) and Buontalenti. On the ground floor noteworthy are the frescos, depicting allegoric and mythological scenes, painted by Ventura Salimbeni in the 16th century and the structure of the old kitchen and the rooms for the domestics in the basement flat. Villa Buonvisi belonged first to Elisa Baciocchi till the beginning of the 19th century, then to the Andreozzi-Motroni family and in the end to the Bottini family.
After that period it became a state-owned property. Walking on along Via Elisa we find Porta "Santi Gervasio e Protasio", which was part of the medieval circle of walls. It has an outer door, an outer defensive structure and two half-rounded keeps sideways. From the 16th century on it was no longer used as a defensive structure. Among the five old gates of the city Porta "Santi Gervasio e Protasio" was the most important one owing to the heavy traffic, going through it.