The Torre della Tagliata, better known as Torre Puccini in Ansedonia

Panorama di Ansedonia (Foto di D.Vannuzzi)

 
 
If you think about Ansedonia today, the first image that comes to mind is the one of luxury houses overlooking the sea, a resort for élite tourism.
Actually, this is the image that this pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea has taken over the past 60 years, in fact just looking at the photos of the 40s, you can appreciate the Ansedonia promontory covered only with woods. The typical Mediterranean vegetation in which the wild boar was the king.
Until after the war, the only buildings on the hills were three towers: the Torre di San Biagio, the Torre di San Pancrazio and the Torre della Tagliata (better known as Tower Puccini).
The three towers, built in different eras with different strategic functions of defense, especially during the Spanish control, represented an important lookout points to protect the State of the Royal Spanish Garrisons.
One of the first person who fell in love with this part of Maremma, next to the Argentario, was the famous Tuscan composer Giacomo Puccini, a great lover of hunting who loved to stay and spend whole days between the dense thickets looking for wild boars, enjoying the harmony between nature and landscape that Ansedonia offers.
You can understand the love of Puccini for Ansedonia from letters written to his friends and hunting buddies, like the one of the 1920 sent to a collegue inviting him to come on the headland of Orbetello:
“Orbetello is the final stop and from there to the village there are seven miles of hell roads, but when you are there or suicide or exaltation , there is no middle way”.
It is said that the Torre della Tagliata, which in his honor is today known as Tower Puccini, saw the birth of one of the most important works of the Tuscan composer, in a Christmas night of the ’20s when the librettist Adami, his good friend and collaborator, went to the hunting residence of the composer Puccini to submit the first part of the work.
 

Puccini’s reaction after reading the literary text was extremely negative, to the point that threatened to give up the work.
The next day, after a whole night of corrections and cuts, the Master, reading over the text (totally revised, modified and much shorter) and with the irony that characterized him, turned to Adami saying:
“Do you know how is my hunting tower called? The Torre della Tagliata (tagliata means cut)”…. “Well… more cut than that!”.
Even today, Ansedonia is an enchanting destination , a place from which you can enjoy breathtaking sunsets, dive in clear water and go for beautiful strolls among the scents of the Mediterranean scrub.
Those who know Ansedonia can understand why Puccini, a century ago, fell in love with this land and chose it as his haven of peace and tranquility.
Contributo di Dario per Maremmans