Villa Montecatini stands in the piedmont belt of the Lucese valley, whose features are the Prana mountains and hills, surrounding the Camaiore valley below. The valley has been populated since the Roman period. Afterwards it has developped thanks to the commercial traffics of the Francigena route.
The Francigena is the most important route of the Middle Age for Italy, because it linked the towns of the Christian faith: Canterbury, Compostela, Roma and Gerusalemme. For the places situated along the Francigena route the pilgrimage was something more than a religious phenomenon, it was a social and economic reality. Villages, country churches and cathedrals were built along the route, because they were places for cultural and economic exchanges.
The village of Nocchi was born in the year 818 with the building of the Church of San Pietro in Noccles. In the oil mill beside Villa Montecatini stands a marble basin with an elf face, which was probably the basis of a fountain situated in the centre of the village. Villa Montecatini was built in the 14th century; in the Mansi’s maps (15th century) the external planimetry of nowadays was already existing.

After the building of the Villa by the Malpigli family from Lucca (14th-15th century), it became property of the Montecatini family at the beginning of the 13th century, when the Malpigli’s genealogical lineage got exhausted. The Marquises of Montecatini, ancient and noble family from Lucca, were the testamentary heirs of the last descendant of the Malpiglis, so they received the Villa by inheritance.
At the beginning of the 19th century the Villa still belonged to the Montecatini family, precisely to Giovanni Lorenzo di Nicolao Montecatini. Because of his debts he was dispossessed of the Villa by a ducal decree in the year 1818. In that period another local noble family, the Grazianis, became more and more important. It seems that a member of the Graziani family was Secretary General of the government of the Kingdom of Tuscany in the 19th century.
On the topographic map of the Land Register of the 19th century, dated 1867, is written “Villa Montecatini today Graziani”. The property transfer occurred between 1818 and 1867. The expert’s report ascribes to Giacomo di Luigi Graziani the property of the Villa. In 1869, as written in the Land Register, the Villa belonged to Giacomo Graziani. In the 19th century the noble families yearned for the area of the Camaiore Valley because of its mild climate and the possibility of developping agricultural farms. In that period, Camaiore’s layers, particularly Nocchi and the country church, belonged to the Graziani family, who had established solid agricultural farms. In the 19th century all the Villas in Nocchi belonged to the large Graziani family. By the passing of the time the family has separated its properties among the various branches.
Villa Montecatini has had numerous owners, many of whose didn’t belong to the Graziani family: in 1922 it belonged to the Bertolli company of Lucca. In 1929 Cesare and Silvio Graziani bought the Villa by the Bertolli company. The planimetry of 1940 of the New Land Register attributes the Villa only to Cesare Graziani. During the Second World War the estate was confiscated and the family evacuated. The Villa became seat of the Nazi commando, which later was criminally liable for the massacre in Sant’Anna of Stazzema.
After the Second World War the Villa belonged again to the Graziani family. Silvio Graziani lived in the Villa, which became manor house of an important agricultural estate, extending itself over the widest part of the Camaiore area. In 1959 Giuliana Graziani, the last descendant of this branch of the family, inherited the property. In 1961 she married Benito Bartolomei and moved the domicile of the family to Nocchi, converting the Villa in a luxury private residence, as it can be admired nowadays.