First restoration work at Villa Giacomo Puccini in Torre del Lago completed

The first round of restoration work at the Villa Museo Giacomo Puccini in Torre del Lago has been completed, involving the mosaic floors, wall textiles and door and window frames of the museum house, restoring some rooms on the ground floor to their former beauty. Giammarco Piacenti and Concita Vadalà were responsible for the restoration work.

The Venetian sown floors, dating from the very last years of the 19th century, were severely compromised by time and humidity, a problem the structure has always had since it was built on the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli. Opened in 1900 to accommodate the family of Giacomo Puccini, who lived there for more than 20 years from that time, the villa was built on a pre-existing watchtower that had its bases directly in the lake. To get it away from the water Puccini bought a piece of land from the Ginori family and adapted it as a garden, but failed to permanently solve the problem.

The restoration of the flooring, carried out by Piacenti S.p.a., specifically involved the study, the adjoining hall and the entrance corridor of the villa. Generally well-preserved in the center of the rooms, the floors, on the other hand, showed significant signs of deterioration along the perimeter areas, which were more exposed to damage due precisely to rising damp infiltration, but also to the ill-advised cement grouting carried out in the past with the intention of curbing the problem.

The restorers’ intervention began with a series of preliminary operations, including a thorough diagnostic investigation of the mortars and lithotypes. The surfaces were cleaned across the board with cotton cloths soaked in water and neutral detergents, then the numerous salt efflorescences due to humidity were removed with desalinizing compresses, and finally a biocide treatment to eradicate mold. All cementitious additions were then manually removed and the mosaic bedding mortar was consolidated, both in the areas that remained uncovered after the removal of the cement and in those where it was depleted or fragmented. To complete the restoration operations, a final protective treatment with microcrystalline wax was applied to all floors.

The beige silk wall fabrics and velvets covering the walls of the studio where Giacomo Puccini composed and received friends were instead restored by Concita Vadalà. Together with the paneling and coffered ceiling, they were probably applied during the last phase of interventions in the salon, around 1915. The fabrics were in a very serious state of preservation due to the stiffening of the fibers and dirt from the use of the fireplace, the cigar the master used to smoke and the weathering, while the silks showed abrasions, breaks and large gaps. The silk and vegetable fiber velvets were very dirty and weakened. The complex intervention, on about 30 square meters of silk cloth and five velvet cloths, required many months of work that began with the removal of the fabrics from the walls in order to avoid structural damage. The intervention began with cleaning with a micro-aspirator and soft brush, followed by the removal of glues applied during previous restorations, wet cleaning, and total consolidation of the silks to fill the gaps and support their abrasions and general weakening. The velvets, on the other hand, were restored by needlework and resin-coated crepeline to protect the upper, lower, vertical sides, and areas of weft untying. Before the fabrics were repositioned, a thick cotton cloth was finally affixed to each wall for protection.

The restorations began in the summer of 2021 and also uncovered a cycle of tempera decorations under the silks and wall velvets, located in the band between the coffered ceiling and the windows, depicting marine subjects such as corals and carp in Japanese taste. The decorations are now the subject of study and documentation.

The work also involved the villa’s windows and shutters: they were completely restored by Fedeli Restauri.

“We are really proud of the work done in these years,” said Simonetta Puccini Foundation President Giovanni Godi. “Since the establishment of the Simonetta Puccini Foundation for Giacomo Puccini, we have kept all our commitments. In less than two years we have restored the building adjacent to the house museum, bringing to life the offices, the archives and the beautiful auditorium, inaugurated last year and dutifully named after the Maestro’s granddaughter. And now we have closed this first cycle of restoration, desired already at the time by Simonetta Puccini and, finally, realized thanks to her bequest and according to her directives.”

From April, the Villa will be open daily, from 10 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. and from 3 to 6:20 p.m. For information and reservations 0584 341455 and villamuseo@giacomopuccini.it

First restoration work at Villa Giacomo Puccini in Torre del Lago completed

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