Piazza Aranci

The square at the centre of Massa in Tuscany, laid out in front of the Palazzo Ducale of the Cybo-Malaspina and named after the orange trees along its edges. It is the town's principal open-air stage. The space was opened in 1807, when Elisa Baciocchi ordered the church of San Pietro pulled down; the double row of orange trees was planted soon afterwards, and the fruit was reserved for charitable institutions rather than picked. Sweet varieties were later replaced by hardier bitter ones. An obelisk of 1853 and a fountain with four marble lions from the Isola workshop stand on the square, which in the early twentieth century was called Piazza Umberto I. Double rows of orange trees planted along three sides gave the square its name and attracted the attention of Giacomo Leopardi and Giosuè Carducci.