When Giacomo Puccini came to the Versilia coast in the late 1800s, he fell in love with an old watchtower overlooking Lake Massaciuccoli.
He decided that it would become the house where he’d spend his summer, and in that very place he would finish writing his third opera, Manon Lescaut.
Puccini spent numerous other holidays in the tower caressed by the lake, until the landscape that had captured him changed: new roads were built, the amount of houses multiplied, and despite the maestro’s complaints, the area became a quagmire.
Although Puccini decided to move to another area of Viareggio, the location still bears his name and the tower has become a dedicated museum.
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