The other "Puccini houses"

Puccini lived in many different houses: he had some of them newly built. This was in fact one of his “extramusical” passions; another has been his love of cars.

Among the many houses there are the house in the village of Tagliata Etrusca near Ansedonia in the Maremma region and the house in Abetone.
	Tagliata Etrusca	Abetone
On the hills between Lucca and the sea there is the Chiatri villa, which was built for Puccini in a wonderful and panoramic position, dominating his beloved Massaciuccoli lake. Being in trouble for reaching the house  – the present road was built just later and the Maestro had to use mules for the last stretch – Puccini abandoned his lovely house.
	Chiatri	The villa in Chiatri today

It is also interesting to remember the house where Giacomo Puccini’s parents were born, in Celle in Garfagnana; this house can be visited.

Three houses are, however, those most closely associated with the composer’s life:

-                  The house where he was born in Lucca

-                  The Torre del Lago villa

-                  The Viareggio villa

It is for their preservation and appreciation that Simonetta Puccini founded the

                                Association of the Friends of the homes of Giacomo Puccini"

Puccini was born in this house located in Via di Poggio and spent his well-to-do childhood here with the numerous other members of his family. He was always very fond of this house which had belonged to his musical ancestors.  The house was sold at a certain point but as soon as he began to achieve success Giacomo intervened to buy it back.  Today it is a museum which is open to the public and contains personal objects, furniture and original copies of some of his early compositions. There are portraits of the composer and his ancestors, some of whom were important musicians, known and appreciated from the early eighteenth century, even at a considerable distance from Lucca.

Puccini's birthplace in Lucca

The Viareggio villa
	The Viareggio Villa
Puccini would probably never have left Torre del Lago if it hadn’t been for the extraction of peat; this activity with its noise and smells made life impossible for a basically solitary artist in love with uncontaminated nature.  On a piece of land bought some time earlier, Puccini had a house and surrounding garden and pine-wood  built by the architect Vincenzo Pilotti. It was here that he wrote his last opera, Turandot, which was left unfinished when he died.  The house, fitted with every comfort and all the advanced technological features of the time, was home to Puccini from 1921 until his death.