When the great composer first arrived here, at the end of the 19th century, he was searching and he found a picturesque and quiet place where his creative genius could spring out.

Puccini immediately liked the Lake and the small village, whose houses were mirrored in the blue-grey waters of Massacciuccoli lake, less than two kilometres far from the sandy beaches of Versilia, and the inhabitants welcomed him enthusiastically. At his arrival in the village railway station the young composer even found a welcome group and several artists, with whom later on he would have founded the Club de La Bohème, gathered around him, happy to meet an already well-known person.

In those years an extraordinary artistic fervour involved almost the whole region: Florence, Livorno, and also Lucca – where Puccini was born – were in close contact with Paris and the other European capitals, ideas and people moved vortically. Painters and musicians used to meet in private houses and cafés, but then they went back where nature still offered them strong sensations in order to return to the roots of their inspiration, to find the purest lights and sounds.

"Sunny beaches, fresh pinewoods, the lake always quiet, that is to say, the Eden".

Puccini had two great passions, music and hunting, and the Massaciuccoli Lake was the ideal place where he could cultivate both. He arrived here in 1891, at the age of 33, and decided to live there in some rented rooms. Following the successes of Manon Lescaut (1893) e della Bohème (1896) he earned enough money to buy the house of his life, an ancient watch tower (after which Torre del Lago had been named) which he made completely rebuilt. Marquess Ginori, owner of these lands, gave him permission to fill a part of the lakeshore in front of the house with soil in order to build the garden and the road. Just outside the house the small pier stood from which he left for his shoots, in particular to hunt bald coots and snipes.

The house, which can be visited, still treasures the pianos on which he composed his masterpieces, memorabilia of the greatest performances,the prizes of his international triumphs, the paintings by his friend Ferruccio Pagni, who the composer used to meet together with other artists such as Plinio Nomellini and Tommasi brothers. Puccini lived in Torre del Lago for thirty years and here he composed his main operas, among which Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), La Fanciulla del West (1910), La Rondine (1917) and Il Trittico (1918). In 1921 he moved to the new villa he had built in Viareggio, where he actually lived only three years, until his death in 1924.

According to his son's will, the Maestro is buried in a chapel built inside the old house at the lake.

Also the lake, which can be toured by boat leaving from the pier in front of Villa Puccini, reminds stories of the past: the light is still the one of the old times, and so is the calm. Today the lake belongs to the Regional Park of Migliarino, San Rossore and Massaciuccoli, which covers 24 thousand hectares of beaches, pinewoods, marshlands hosting a very rich avifauna. This tissue made of the lake, Puccini and music gave birth to the Puccini Festival, which following Puccini's wishes has taken place on these lakeshores since 1930 and which is completely dedicated to his work.