Last updated: October 2026
I once went to see the Puccini family home in Celle dei Puccini, a tiny hill village above Lucca. I was heavily pregnant at the time.
Now. Had Giacomo had a premonition that some pregnant Brit would be snooping round his family home, about to pop a baby all over the family bed, and then play a dreadful rendition of “Three Blind Mice” on the very piano he composed on… well. I think he’d have had words.
But I’d go back tomorrow. It’s one of my favourite little museums in Tuscany.
Wait, wasn’t Puccini born in Lucca?
He was. Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca on 22 December 1858, and his birthplace in Corte San Lorenzo is now the Puccini Museum. If you’re staying in Lucca, here are my favourite day trips from the city.
Celle is something else. It’s where the Puccini family came from. Iacopo Puccini, Giacomo’s great-great-grandfather and the first of the family’s long line of musicians, was born here in 1712, and the family moved down to Lucca soon after. Giacomo himself came up to Celle as a boy and kept a soft spot for the place.
So if Lucca is where the story happens, Celle is where it starts.
What’s inside
The house was bought in 1973 by the Associazione Lucchesi nel Mondo (an association for people from Lucca living all over the world) and turned into a museum. It’s small, a few rooms, and packed with real things:
- The piano on which, the museum says, part of Madama Butterfly was composed. Yes, the one I murdered “Three Blind Mice” on. I’m told you’re not allowed to touch it now. I wonder why.
- The Edison phonograph that Edison himself gave Puccini.
- The bed Giacomo was born in, brought up from Lucca.
- His christening robe.
- Letters, photographs, scores and family bits and pieces.
Walking round, I kept picturing the Puccini family table back in the day. A house full of musicians, all very artistic. Were there artistic temperaments battering away amidst the olio, pomodoro and vino? I like to think so.
Then I sang
They played us Madama Butterfly as we went round, and by the time I left his music was in my blood. I came out of Giacomo’s front door feeling compelled to sing for my life. Opera. Full volume.
When I sing it’s far from beautiful. It’s soul-piercing and bone-shattering. The whole valley shook that day. I reckon it hit a 5 on the Richter scale.
Sorry, Celle.
A sad story worth getting right
When I first wrote about this visit, I joked that Puccini might have joined “his lover, Doria Manfredi” in drowning himself in the lake at Torre del Lago. I’ve since learned I had that very wrong, and Doria deserves better.
Doria Manfredi was a young maid in the Puccini household at Torre del Lago. Puccini’s wife, Elvira, became convinced Doria was having an affair with him and hounded her publicly round the village. In January 1909, Doria swallowed poison and died a few days later, aged 23. An autopsy showed she had been a virgin. Elvira was convicted and sentenced to prison, and Puccini paid Doria’s family a large sum so the case was dropped and Elvira never served her sentence.
She wasn’t his lover, and nobody drowned. Historians now think Puccini’s actual affair was with Doria’s cousin, Giulia. It’s a tragic story, and a reminder that real people sit behind the opera legends.
Getting to Celle
Celle dei Puccini is in the comune of Pescaglia, about 24 km north of Lucca. From Lucca take the SS12 up the Serchio valley towards Diecimo, then turn left for Pescaglia and follow the signs up to Celle. The last bit is narrow and twisty. Take it slowly and use your horn on the blind bends like the locals.
There’s no sensible bus, so you’ll want a car.
Combine it with Lucca itself, or with Villa Museo Puccini at Torre del Lago, the lakeside villa where he wrote much of his later work and where he’s buried.
Visiting the Museo di Casa Puccini, Celle
Where: Via Meletori, Celle dei Puccini, Pescaglia (Lucca). About 24 km from Lucca.
Opening times: Thursday 2pm to 6pm; Friday and Saturday 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm; Sunday 2pm to 6pm. Last entry 30 minutes before closing. Hours can change, so check the museum’s website before you go.
Tickets: €4, under-12s free, guided visit included.
Photos: no flash.
Also in the area: the Puccini Museum (his birthplace) in Lucca, and Villa Museo Puccini at Torre del Lago.
And if you hear someone singing very badly as you leave, don’t worry. It’s probably just another fan.
You might also enjoy:
- Best day trips from Lucca: 6 easy escapes I love
- 8 small villages in Tuscany you’ve probably never heard of
Susan
Photo credits: Pescaglia, the comune Celle dei Puccini belongs to (photo: LigaDue, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Puccini’s birthplace in Lucca, now the Puccini Museum (photo: kajikawa, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
