Houses of Memory

The trip to the Houses of Memory invites you to visit the historic homes that inspired great characters of literature and music to compose their extraordinary masterpieces

The first residence of the proposed itinerary is the birthplace of Giosue Carducci, which rises a few kilometres from Pietrasanta, in the hamlet of Valdicastello. The poet Carducci left Versilia with his family when he was still a child, but this land remained forever in his heart. In fact, he often mentioned it in his verses and returned there several times.
The home of the Carducci family is located near the Baccatoio stream, and consists of four rooms that house the furnishings and memories of the poet's life.

On the other side of the Apuan Alps lived the most illustrious pupil of Carducci: Giovanni Pascoli. In the house of Castelvecchio, in the municipality of Barga, the poet spent many periods of rest there between 1895 and 1912.
The so-called "bicocca di Caprona" was the centre of one Pascoli’s most prolific and happy periods of literary creation: the surrounding nature and the inhabitants of the place inspired his most famous poetic collections, and one collection took on the name of the town to him so dear, the Cantos of Castelvecchio.
The house still retains the structure, the furnishings and the original objects of the time. Adjacent to the house is the chapel where Pascoli and his sister are buried.

The itinerary continues with the two houses connected to the life of Maestro Giacomo Puccini.

In the court of San Lorenzo, in the historic center of Lucca, is located the birthplace of the composer, born on December 22, 1858, with the original furnishings and the piano with which he composed the famous opera entitled Turandot. Despite his worldwide fame, Puccini remained strongly attached to his birthplace and to the villa located on the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli, in Torre del Lago. In this house you can still breathe the atmosphere that inspired many of his immortal works.