Family home of Giosuè Carducci

Giosuè Carducci, the famous Italian poet and winner of the Nobel prize for Literature in 1906, was born in Valdicastello, a small town in the municipality of Pietrasanta, on 27 July 1835. The family home, consisting of four rooms in a building found on the side of the stream, is now a House Museum dedicated to the memory of the poet, with furniture, mementos and illustrative panels related to his life.

In 1838 the family moved to Castagneto and in 1849 they moved to Florence, leaving their house in Valdicastello, where Carducci returned there several times.

On 16 June 1877 he carried out an inspection on behalf of the Ministry of Education at the Lideo di Masa and on that occasion he described his love for his hometown in two letters, later on 1 March 1890 he went to see his home in Valdicastello. His final fleeting visit to Pietrasanta was on 19 March that year.

Carducci died in Bologna on 16 February 1907; one month later the Town Council of Pietrasanta commemorated him in the cloister of Sant’Agostino: the family home was declared a national monument and in 1912 was acquired by the municipality. In 1950 a decree from the President of the Republic authorised the town to change its name to Valdicastello Carducci.