At the end of the 70s, even before completing his studies, Giacomo Puccini came to Bagni di Lucca to play the piano in a small dance orchestra at the Teatro Accademico, the Casino and the Ducci hall of Ponte al Seraglio. The salary was £ 10 or 15 for the evening, he came a bit before the show to save and had dinner at the home of Adelson Betti (for whom he composed the hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt), father of the famous violinist Adolfo.

After more than a decade, Puccini returned to Bagni di Lucca several times in the Summer as a holiday maker, as every wealthy person from Lucca of his generation, attracted not only by the pleasant climate, but also by the presence of many good friends and “dalla quiete bagnajola”. Bagni di Lucca was also an obligatory stop for the Abetone, where Puccini often spent the hottest periods of the summer (for a time he also owned a house there).

In 1909 he chose the Grand Hotel delle Terme (“I think that’s how they call the tall hotel”), after satisfying himself that the hotel could grant him the peace necessary for working: there in fact he composed the second act of La fanciulla del West.

In 1920 he spent more than twenty days at the Hotel Vittoria: precisely in the “quiete bagnajola” in the villa where the baron Edoardo Fassini Camossi lived. Here Puccini had the decisive meeting with the librettists Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni for the launch of Turandot, including listening to a carillon brought from China by the Baron, which performed three melodies later used by Puccini. Precisely from the spa town correspondence started for the “Giornale d’Italia” which announced the new opera by Puccini: a real scoop that aroused the anger of the composer, who would have preferred more privacy.

In Bagni di Lucca Puccini had two of his closest friends, Ferruccio Giorgi and Adriano Bastiani: the house of the latter has remained almost intact and retains many memories of the composer.