It’s now over seven years since tobacco shop and hotel owner Renato Petri died. His tobacco shop (which also has a bookshop stocking titles of local interest and a sports department), is still thriving. However, the Hotel Roma, formerly the original residence of Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon I, when she visited Bagni di Lucca for her summer holidays, remains closed and dilapidating.
There is the usual controversy behind the situation but let us hope that the hotel, where Puccini would also stay, will not decay much further and that a resolution may be found for the building is so much a highlight of Bagni’s main street and the town’s history that its loss would be unpardonable.
From a historical perspective it is sad that such an important site should be allowed to decay. We visited the Hotel Roma guided by the erudite Renato Petri on an open day. The Hotel contains a lot of interesting memorabilia surrounding Elisa Baciocchi. It would be a fine thing to create a mini-museum as well as to restore the Hotel which is in the centre of Bagni di Lucca.
Thank you very much for your interesting comment.