Description of the attraction
Villa Puccini is one of the most popular tourist attractions located in the vicinity of the resort town of Viareggio in Tuscany. After the death of the great composer Giacomo Puccini in 1924, his villa in the town of Torre del Lago was turned into a museum dedicated to the life of the outstanding Italian. Inside you can see an office with a huge piano, at which the composer sat and at which he composed his famous works, as well as a collection of paintings donated to him by artists and friends. The composer's particular passion was hunting, and this is also reflected in the villa - here you can see his collection of weapons and hunting trophies. The ground floor displays animal skins collected by Puccini during his hunting expeditions.
Having once visited the small town of Torre del Lago on the shores of Lake Massachuccoli, Giacomo Puccini fell in love with these places forever and decided to settle here. In 1891, he bought an old tower house and commissioned the architects Luigi De Servi and Pliny Nomellini, as well as the engineer Giuseppe Puccinelli, to restore the building. They have transformed the old building into a beautiful two-storey Liberty style villa with simple and clear shapes. An English garden was laid out around the villa, which today can be accessed through a glass and iron bay window. Inside the villa, there is a fireplace by Galileo Chini, furniture made at the Bugatti and Tiffany factories, a coffered ceiling in red, gold and blue, and that very Foster's piano. On the ground floor there is a small chapel where Puccini was buried in 1926.
I must say that the beauty of the Versailles Riviera and the cozy atmosphere of this region attracted more than one famous family to the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli. Next to Villa Puccini is Villa Orlando, built in 1869 in a neo-Gothic style with pointed arches and a slate roof. On the other side of the lake, in the town of Piagetta, is the Villa Ginori, built in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today both villas are privately owned and closed to the public.
