ALTOPASCIO

Centro di Documentazione della Vita Materiale dell`Antico Centro Storico di Altopascio
The museum is housed in a wing of the hospital complex built in the 11th century. In spite of the many changes the complex resembling to a castle and provided with imposing circle of walls has undergone throughout the centuries, some of its rooms, the church of San Jacopo and the pilgrims` loggia are still to be seen. The collection of ceramic material and finds from the medieval church, the cloister and the rooms of the complex document various aspects of life in Altopascio between the 12th and 19th century.


BARGA

Casa Cordati
The 17th-century building houses a permanent exhibition of the work of the painter Bruno Cordati.

Casa Museo Pascoli
The museum is set in the house where Giovanni Pascoli lived from 1895 to his death in 1912. The rooms still retain the original furniture. On display are diplomas, books and manuscripts. The complex includes also the chapel where the poet was buried.

Museo Civico del Territorio "Antonio Mordini"
"Antonio Mordini" Civic Museum of the Territory is housed in Palazzo Pretorio, a building dating from the 14th century. The section devoted to geology and palaeontology presents the characteristics of the Serchio valley. A second section devoted to the Middle Ages and Renaissance illustrates the civil and religious history of Barga through archaeological finds, paintings, sculptures and sacred furnishings. Outside the museum is the gnomon of an 18th-century sundial, whereas in the old prison the clockwork of the bell tower of the cathedral is to be admired.


BORGO A MOZZANO

Raccolta Archeologica di Borgo a Mozzano
Borgo a Mozzano Archaeological Collection is housed in the basement of Borgo a Mozzano town hall and documents the history of the municipal area through archaeological and mineral finds and the remains of wild and domestic animals. On display are also Ligurian and Etruscan clay items and the funeral gifts for a soldier and his bride from a Ligurian tomb.


CAMAIORE

Civico Museo Archeologico
The museum housed in the 16th-century Palazzo Tori Massoni exhibits prehistoric, Etruscan, Roman, medieval and Renaissance finds. Of particular interest are the prehistoric finds from Buca del Tasso, Buca del Corno, Grotta all`Onda and Lake Massaciuccoli.

Museo di Arte Sacra
The museum is housed in the former Confraternita del Santissimo Sacramento. On display are paintings, sculptures, sacred furnishings and artistic items in gold from the local churches dating from the 14th to the 18th century.


CAMPORGIANO

Civica Raccolta di Ceramiche Rinascimentali
The museum is housed in the main keep of the Este castle. The 15th-century building contains a collection of ceramics from the 14th to the 16th century.


CAPANNORI

Mostra Archeologica Permanente "Testimonianze del Passato"
The museum displays finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Roman colonisation and the Middle Ages.

Mostra Permanente "Attrezzi di Vita Contadina"
The permanent exhibition "Implements of Peasant Life" illustrates some aspects of rural life through the reconstruction of a blacksmith`s workshop, an old kitchen, a bedroom, a wine-fermentation room and a weaving room. On display are several agricultural machines and implements relating to rural life from the 1920s.

Museo Contadino della Piana di Lucca
The permanent ethnographic exhibition testifies to the local peasants` civilisation through items from the early 19th to mid-20th century. The exhibition is divided into five sections dedicated to weaving and spinning, the tradition of maize-growing, grain: from the field to the table; wood working and transport and hoisting.

Parco di Villa Reale
The 17th-century arrangement of the upper part of the park is owed to Oliviero and Lelio Orsetti, who purchased the villa in 1651. The Orsetti family commissioned the construction of the Palazzina dell`Orologio, which owes its name to the clock on its façade. Napoleon`s sister Elisa Baciocchi purchased the villa in 1806 together with Villa del Vescovo and other bordering lands. The new owner commissioned also the two twin small buildings at the entrance to the park. The upper part of the park, which was realised in the 17th century, features a scenographic water theatre, a vegetation theatre and a lemon-tree garden. The lower portion of the park, instead, is rich in tree clusters and woods traversed by brooks. Along with traditional tree species (pine, beech, holm-oak and linden trees), some rare species were introduced, including magnolias, weeping willows and American oaks. In the lower portion of the park is also the so-called Pan`s Grotto, which was already present in the garden of Villa del Vescovo. In 1814, the villa passed to Marie Louse of Bourbon, who commissioned architect Nottolini to build an astronomical observatory.

Villa Cenami Mansi
Built in the second half of the 16th century, the villa was renovated for the first time by architect Muzio Oddi in 1634-35, when the complex belonged to the Cenami family. The Mansi family purchased the property in 1675 and in 1742 entrusted Giovan Francesco Giusti with modifying the façade. The paintings in the stateroom are by Stefano Tofanelli, the most important Neoclassical painter active in Lucca. In the first half of the 18th century Messina-born architect Filippo Juvarra was entrusted with rearranging the park, where in the early 19th century new tree species were introduced.

Villa Santini Torrigiani
The villa was built in the 16th century and a century later was purchased by marquis Santini, Lucca`s ambassador at the court of Louis XIV. The wonderful Baroque façade is the result of the renovation work the villa underwent in the early 18th century. In the same period, the park was rearranged and the lawns were planted around two still-existing fountains. In 1816, the villa passed to the Torrigiani family, who had the park rearranged according to the principles of the romantic English garden.


CASTELNUOVO DI GARFAGNANA

Museo Archeologico del Territorio della Garfagnana
The museum exhibits archaeological finds from the Bronze Age unearthed in Puglianella and Pieve Fosciana, as well as items from the times when the Etruscans and Ligurians lived in the area.


CASTIGLIONE DI GARFAGNANA

Museo Etnografico Provinciale "Don Luigi Pellegrini"
"Don Luigi Pellegrini" Provincial Ethnographic Museum is housed in the ancient hospice of San Pellegrino, a building dating from the 12th century. On display are craftsmen`s tools, farming implements and everyday objects collected by Don Luigi Pellegrini, as well as some original furnishings from the hospital of San Pellegrino, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The sections of the museum replicate several settings of everyday life and work.


COREGLIA ANTELMINELLI

Museo della Figurina di Gesso e dell`Emigrazione
The Museum of Plaster Figurines and Emigration housed in Palazzo Vanni documents the activity of production of plaster figurines between the 17th and 20th centuries. The so-called "figurinai" (or figurine-makers) sold them in street markets in the Serchio valley. In addition to figurines from the 18th to the 20th century, the museum exhibits also plaster and rubber moulds and documents on the methods employed.


FORTE DEI MARMI

Museo della Satira e della Caricatura
The museum housed in Leopold I`s fortress has an extensive collection of original satirical drawings by past and contemporary authors. The museum includes also a specialised library and a video library. The museum has become an important point of reference for the collection, preservation and study of all material concerning the history of world satire and caricature.


LUCCA

Battistero e Chiesa dei SS. Giovanni e Reparata
The church of Santa Reparata was the first cathedral of Lucca, and when in the 8th century the seat of the bishop was transferred to the present Duomo of San Martino, the baptismal font remained where it was. The church was built in the 5th century on the ruins of a Roman settlement. The present building was built in the late 12th century and then remodelled about 500 years later. The works for the reconstruction of the baptistery on a pre-existing building were terminated in 1393 with the erection of the ogival dome.

Gabinetto di Storia Naturale del Liceo Machiavelli
The museum exhibits Ernesto Turati`s malacological collection and Carlo Piaggia`s ornithological collection, as well as items that once belonged to Grand Duke Leopold II and some mineralogical, entomological and palaeontological collections.

Museo Casa Natale Giacomo Puccini
The museum set in the house where Giacomo Puccini was born on December 22nd, 1858 exhibits items that once belonged to the famous composer, a collection of letters, the piano on which "Turandot" was composed and signed editions of several early works.

Museo della Cattedrale
The museum exhibits paintings, illuminated manuscripts, gold items, sculptures, fabrics and sacred hanging and furnishings from the cathedral of Lucca.

Museo Nazionale Villa Guinigi
The villa built between 1413 and 1418 by order of Paolo Guinigi houses an important art collection strictly linked to the history of the town. The museum aims to illustrate the development of figurative art in Lucca and in the surrounding area. On display are prehistoric, Etruscan and Roman finds, paintings and sculptures by artists born or active in Lucca from the Middle Ages to the 17th century and a collection of fabrics and sacred furnishings.

Museo Storico della Liberazione (1943-1945)
The museum is housed in several rooms of the 14th-century Palazzo Guinigi. On display are documents, photos and memorabilia relative to the Italian Resistance. A section of the museum contains urns with the earth from Italian military cemeteries and the towns and villages where Nazi massacres took place.

Orto Botanico Lucchese e Museo Botanico "Cesare Bicchi"
The Botanical Garden of Lucca was established in 1820 during the government of Marie Louise of Bourbon. Between 1860 and 1907 were built the greenhouses and the small lake, and many living plants and dry samples were added. The big cedar of Lebanon planted in 1822 by Paolo Volpi, the first director, is the most important tree of the garden, and has become its symbol. Adjoining the Botanical Garden is the Botanical Museum named after Cesare Bicchi. The museum exhibits the herbaria created by the early directors, samples of trunks of various tree species, collections of plaster models of macro fungi and fruit cultivated in Lucca countryside, as well as several models of farming implements.

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi
The art gallery is housed in Palazzo Mansi, one of the most important aristocratic residences in Lucca. On the first floor of the building built between the 16th and 17th centuries are the paintings of the collection of Grand Duke Leopold II and the Mansi family. On the second floor are works by painters active in Lucca in the 19th century and an interesting section dedicated to precious fabrics dating from the 16th to the 18th century.

Sacrestia del Duomo e Monumento di Ilaria del Carretto
The funeral monument is a marble sarcophagus carved by Jacopo della Quercia between 1406 and 1408. In origin the monument commissioned by Paolo Guinigi at the death of his young wife was set at the centre of the Duomo of Lucca; however, when Paolo Guinigi was banished from the town in 1430, it was moved close to the sacristy. The sarcophagus, where Ilaria`s body has never been laid, has been moved to the sacristy, where is also an altarpiece by Domenico Ghirlandaio.


MASSAROSA

Antiquarium Civico di Massaciuccoli - Villa Romana
The Antiquarium exposes the archaeological finds unearthed during the excavations of a Roman villa dating from the 1st century AD. Visitors can also tour the ruins of a thermal-bath building annexed to the villa. In proximity to the villa is a second building, probably a leisure station, provided with a thermal environment.


MONTECARLO

Fortezza di Montecarlo
The semi-circular keep and the two majestic square-shaped towers were built in the 12th century. Due to its strategic position, the fortress was remodelled and enlarged several times in the course of the centuries. The imposing south-eastern ramparts were built around 1550 by order of Cosimo I de` Medici.


PESCAGLIA

Museo dei Puccini
The museum is set in the house of Giacomo Puccini`s ancestors. On display are items and paintings that once belonged to the Puccini family, including the bed in which the celebrated composer was born, his cradle, the piano on which most of "Madama Butterfly" was composed and an interesting collection of letters and musical scores.

Museo del Castagno
The Chestnut Museum aims to illustrate the fundamental role the chestnut has played as a foodstuff and raw material in the lives of the local people through a collection of implements for harvesting and processing chestnuts from the 18th to the 20th century. In the basement of the building that houses the museum are the reconstructions of a carpenter`s shop and a mill. Outside the building are a charcoal burner`s post and a "metato" (where the chestnuts are dried).


PIETRASANTA

Casa Natale di Giosuè Carducci
The museum is set in the house where Giosuè Carducci was born in 1835. On display are items and memorabilia that once belonged to the celebrated Tuscan poet.

Museo Archeologico Versiliese "Bruno Antonucci"
The museum exhibits ceramics, weapons, funeral stones, working tools, amphorae, glassware and coins from various archaeological sites in Versilia and dating from prehistory to the Middle Ages.

Museo dei Bozzetti
The museum housed in the former monastery of Sant`Agostino aims to illustrate the process of creation of marble and bronze sculptures. On display are over 600 sketches, drawings and models of sculptures by 300 important Italian and foreign artists, including many 20th-century sculptors who worked and still work in Versilia. The museum has also a rich paper and computerized archive.


PORCARI

Mostra Didattica Archeologica
The exhibition consists of a collection of implements and metal and glass items from the Stone and Bronze Ages and of Roman origin from the area around Porcari.


SAN ROMANO IN GARFAGNANA

Museo Naturalistico e Museo dei Rapaci del Centro Visitatori dell`Orecchiella
The two museums are housed in the Visitors` Centre of the Orecchiella Park. The park was established in the 1960s and includes the Regional State Forest and three nature reserves, namely Orecchiella, Lamarossa and Pania di Corfino. The Nature Museum illustrates the cycle of the natural elements through a series of 3D explanatory panels, whereas some dioramas present the fauna of the park. The Museum of Bird of Prey displays the reproduction of an eagle`s nest and a collection of stuffed birds; a series of explanatory panels present diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey.


SERAVEZZA

Museo del Lavoro e delle Tradizioni Popolari della Versilia Storica
The Museum of Work and Folk Traditions in Historical Versilia is housed in the Palazzo Mediceo, which was built between 1560 and 1564 by order of Cosimo I de` Medici. The museum was instituted to illustrate the main manufacturing activities in ancient Versilia (the marble industry, ironworking and mining) and their evolution through a collection of working tools, machines and machine models. The collection includes farming implements and objects tied to domestic activities, as well as numerous photos.


STAZZEMA

Museo Storico della Resistenza
In 1991 Sant`Anna di Stazzema was chosen as seat of the Historical Museum of Resistance and of the Italian National Park of Peace. The museum composes of the monumental ossuary that stands on the hill of Cava, in whose base are the remains of the victims of the Nazi-Fascist massacres of August 12th, 1944, and a collection of period photos, posters and paintings.


VIAREGGIO

Musei Civici di Villa Paolina
The Civic Museums are set in the villa built by order of Napoleon`s sister Paolina around 1820. The building houses a series of musical instruments the musico lover Giovanni Ciuffreda collected during his travels, an art gallery with works by the Viareggio-born painter Lorenzo Viani and other important 20th-century artists, and the Blanc Museum, which is devoted to archaeology and illustrates the first forms of human life in north-western Tuscany.

Villa Museo Giacomo Puccini
The rooms of the villa where Giacomo Puccini lived between 1891 and 1921 and composed most of his works house a collection of historical records and memorabilia that once belonged to the famous composer.


VILLA COLLEMANDINA

Orto Botanico "Pania di Corfino"
Situated in the Orecchiella Park, "Pania di Corfino" Botanical Garden was established to collect and protect the flora native to Lucca Apennines. The botanical garden is divided into sections devoted to several environments of the Apennines and Apuan Alps. A section is devoted to the medicinal and eatable plants of Garfagnana. The botanical garden includes also a permanent photographic exhibition and a small ethnographic museum.