The composer's birthplace and his villa on Lake Massaciuccoli
Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca in 1858, into a family that had provided the city's church musicians for four generations. His birthplace in Corte San Lorenzo is now a museum with his Steinway piano, on which he composed Turandot, scores, letters and costumes; in the square outside, a bronze statue shows him sitting with a cigarette.
The heart of his life, however, was Torre del Lago, on the shore of Lake Massaciuccoli, today part of the municipality of Viareggio. Here he built a villa where he composed La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, hunted ducks in the reeds and is buried in a small chapel. Every summer the Puccini Festival stages his operas in an open-air theatre on the lake.
Tip: in Lucca, the "Puccini e la sua Lucca" concerts offer a short recital every evening, all year round, in the church of San Giovanni.
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