During the late ‘70’s, even before finishing his studies, Giacomo Puccini used to come to Bagni di Lucca to play the piano in a dance band at the Teatro Accademico at the Casinò and at the Sala Ducci at Ponte a Serraglio. His salary ranged from lit. 10 to lit. 15 for the evening. In order to save money he would arrive a little before the show began and take supper in the house 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 several times to Bagni di Lucca for a summer holiday, as did every well-to-do Luccan of his generation. Apart from its pleasant climate, he was drawn there by the presence of many good friends and by "the quiet atmosphere of a spa". Bagni di Lucca was also a necessary stopping place on the way to Abetone, where Puccini often spent the hottest summer months (for a while he even possessed a house there).
In 1909 he chose the Grand Hotel delle Terme ("I think that’s what they call the hotel high up"), after having made certain that it could guarantee him the quiet necessary for his work. In fact it was there that he composed the second act of La fanciulla del West.
In 1920 he spent more than twenty days at the Hotel Vittoria. At the villa where Baron Edoardo Fassini Camossi resided, Puccini had the decisive meeting with Adami and Simoni that launched Turandot, including his hearing of a carillon brought by the baron from China, which played three melodies that Puccini later used . And precisely from this spa town there proceeded a correspondence in the "Giornale d’Italia" which announced Puccini’s new opera – a genuine scoop that aroused the composer’s anger, who would have wanted greater secrecy in the matter.
At Bagni di Lucca Puccini counted two of his dearest friends, Ferruccio Giorgi and Adriano Bastiani. The latter’s house has remained more or less intact and contains many souvenirs of the composer.

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