Archive for 'Tourist Attractions'

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born on the 22nd of December 1858 and would go on to become an opera composer that would be labelled "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". Many of his works are very famous. In fact, among his ouevre are some of the best known operas of all time, amongst them are “La Bohème” (1896), “Tosca” (1900), and “Madama Butterfly” (1904). These are the operatic works that tour most often and have become standards of the genre of music.

The Lucca Summer Festival is one of Italy's most famous music festivals and, this year, celebrates twenty years since its inception. As a result, the line-up is rather extraordinary. With events taking place from June to September, there are plenty of chances to experience this Tuscan music institution once you have found a luxury villa in Lucca.

Italy takes her festivals seriously but while the word “festival” might conjure images of boho outfits or muddy fields to people in different parts of the world, Tuscany's festivals tend to be smaller local events that are more about food than music. Despite this, there are actually plenty of great music festivals throughout Italy that attract big names. In fact, local governments often organise big concerts in smaller cities that you would never have imagined would play host to such events. It's not unusual to accidentally stumble across a world-renowned act playing in a town square on a summer night.

One particularly well-established festival of this kind is the Lucca Summer Festival, which is in its 20th year in 2017. Taking place between June 14th and September 23rd, this year, it is held annually in the historical center of Lucca in Piazza Napoleone.

Pescia is a charming, if lesser-known, city in the province of Pistoia, in Tuscany. It is thought to have had Lombard origins and the name is a Lombard word that means “river”, which makes sense as the town is located on the banks of a river by the same name.

For centuries, it was famous as a producer of fine silk and flourished under the profitable trade. However, this came to an end in the nineteenth century when commercial conflict with France, during the rule of Napoleon, destroyed the local silk trade. Thereafter, the city was in need of an alternative economic source of livelihood and the production of flowers and olive oil took over.

We have talked about Poppi Castle before but only to discuss the grisly legend of Matilda, the most beautiful woman in the area that was married off young to an old powerful man from the Guidi family, who ruled Tuscany with an iron fist.

None too fond of her husband and jealous of the freedom of the common people, she began sending for eligible young bachelors to come to Poppi Castle to do repairs or entertain her. Each evening, she would choose one of these men to come to her chamber to spend the night and the following morning, to avoid having her adultery discovered, she pushed them through a trapdoor where they fell to a bloody death among razor blades and broken glass. When the number of missing young men began to be noticed, rumours of Matilda spread and, legend says, the townspeople stormed the castle. Matilda was trapped in a tower of the castle and the door was bricked up, leaving her to starve to death.