Lake Tower will host, Thursday 9 May 2024, the start of the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia, one of the most famous cycling competitions in the world; a stop in the name of Giacomo Puccini, in the year in which the centenary of his death is celebrated, which starts right from the Villa on the shores of the lake, which was the Maestro’s beloved residence for over twenty years. For the occasion, the Simonetta Puccini Foundation for Giacomo Puccini, in collaboration with the Velocipedi and Ancient Bicycles museum – A. & C. Azzini Private Collection and with the patronage of the City of Viareggio and the Territorial Museum System of the Province of Lucca, will propose the small exhibition “I’m a Bicyclist! Velocipedes and bicycles in the time of Puccini”, which from 4 to 12 May, in the Auditorium adjacent to the Villa Museum, will present a selection of two-wheeled vehicles from the late nineteenth century, together with original documents of the time and transcriptions of Puccini’s letters which attest the great passion that the composer had for this means of transport.
In the Puccini epistolary, edited by the National Edition of the Works of Giacomo Puccini, there are various letters from the 1890s in which the Maestro talks about bicycles. He changes several models, buys as many for friends and relatives and, with great fun, tries to always be updated on new products, having the first illustrated catalogs sent to him and chasing the latest creations across half of Europe. “Dear Caselli” he wrote to his friend from Lucca in July 1893 “The bicycle has arrived. I Make Sparks! Come and you will stay rubber. I’ll chase you. Yours, GPuccini. European Champion”.
It is precisely by doing research on the velocipede models mentioned in those letterswhich the Simonetta Puccini Foundation came into contact with the Velocipedi and Ancient Bicycles museum in Soresina, in the province of Cremonawhich he has been exhibiting to the public for ten years the private collection that Alfredo and Carlo Azzini, father and sonhave been growing since 2008. A true place of wonders, which today has almost 250 specimens.
For the Torre del Lago exhibition, four nineteenth-century velocipedes arrive from the Soresina museum. Two are signed by Humber, one of the first and most advanced bicycle manufacturers, also mentioned several times by Puccini in his correspondence. Humber was very present in the racing sector and achieved its best competitive results in those years. On display you will be able to see a “Giraffe” model from 1893, whose frame was patented by the Irishman Mc Cormack, who was so called due to his impressive height, and a Beeston model tricycle, built in 1901. This vehicle was widely used at least until the First World War as, given the condition of the roads, it was much safer than a two-wheeler. With a model completely identical to the one exhibited, in 1893, the runner FT Bidlake won the 24 hours of the Cuca Cup, covering 410 miles and 1110 yards (over 665 km) in 24 hours, then holding the record for 60 years. From the famous English company Windsor, which stood out for its particular construction quality, is the Gentleman Model of 1894 that arrives in Torre del Lago. Finally, exhibited for the first time to the public after a complete restoration, an Acatena model of the Metropole, the first production company that put on the market bicycles with double conical cup transmission, improperly called “cardan”, i.e. without chain. The reason for this astonishing mechanical application was to be found in the attempt to eliminate the chain, at the time subject to very easy breakage due to the poor quality of the steel materials of the time and very difficult to replace, as each bicycle had its own different type of chain. Cardan bicycles were by far the most expensive in the catalogs of the few companies that tried their hand at making them.
Alongside these memorabilia, some documents from the Simonetta Puccini Archive will be on display, among which we mention a photograph of the Valdinievole Cycling Union which, in a group of cyclists, also sees Puccini with his two-wheeled vehicle and an invoice of purchase of a “bicycle” in the name of Puccini, for a purchase in 1902 at the large Nazari & Gora cycling emporium in Milan, known by the name “To the elegant cyclist”. On the walls there will be transcriptions of a selection of Puccini’s letters in which his passion for bicycles can be fully read.
The small exhibition, which aims to draw attention to a decidedly little-known aspect of Puccini, while at the same time celebrating the stage of the Giro d’Italia dedicated to him, will be open to the public from 4 to 12 May, from 10am to 1pm and from 3pm to 6pm. Entrance is free.
On May 9th, the day of the Corsa Rosa stage, the Villa Puccini Museum will be open to the public with an entrance ticket reduced to 5 euros. In the morning, for the occasion, there are three guided tours included in the ticket, at 10, 11 and 12, which will be accompanied by a musical performance by Maestro Elia Faccini who will play Giacomo Puccini’s Förster piano.
