The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago is one of the most eagerly awaited events in Tuscany’s rich cultural calendar; it is Italy’s most important opera festival and the only one in the world dedicated to the composer Giacomo Puccini. It takes place every summer, in July and August, in the very places that inspired Maestro Puccini to compose his immortal melodies.

Established in 1930, over the years it has become a prestigious event capable of attracting thousands of spectators from all over the world. At the Puccini Festival, they can hear the greatest stars of opera, conducted by leading conductors, and admire extraordinary productions of Puccini’s masterpieces – from *Madama Butterfly*, *Turandot*, La Bohème, Tosca and Manon Lescaut. Puccini’s operas are staged in a large open-air theatre seating 3,400, on the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli, surrounded by greenery, right in front of the Puccini House Museum, where the composer’s remains are laid to rest and where visitors can admire artefacts and memorabilia from Puccini’s life and glorious artistic career.

The museum, which was run with love and expertise by the late Mrs Simonetta Puccini, granddaughter of the illustrious Giacomo, is, for the tens of thousands of enthusiasts who visit it every year, the ideal starting point for exploring the many fascinating themed itineraries that wind their way throughout the province of Lucca and the most important art cities of Tuscany.