History museums
 

As I peruse the guide books I am finding much incredible art and churches, but I must be missing it, I am not seeing museums that specifically focus on history. We are looking at Rome, Florence, Siena and Venice. Any recommendations. Also, my husband's father fought in Italy during WWII and we are wondering if we can track down any preserved "battlegrounds" or other monuments. I would also ve very interested in learning more about the Italian resistance. your ideas are much appreciated.

Does your husband know where his father fought? If he was with Allied forces, most of the battles were south of Rome until the last weeks of the war when they had pushed to north of the Po River. If this aspect of your trip is significant, you might want to read this book:

Define "history" please. Anywhere you go in the cities you mention you'll be submerged in it, impossible to contain it in a building. I especially loved walking along the Appian Way on the southern edge of Rome, the road on which armies marched & contributed so greatly to Rome's success in empire, with tombs of ancient Romans along the roadside. And Ostia Antica. My 2 favorites "museums" in Rome. Or, as you may indicate, is the history you're looking for recent history?

There's plenty of WWII history in and around Anzio.

I agree with Mme Perdu that Italy really doesn't need a lot of buildings to throw relics into, though there certainly are cities (like Milan) where it has done so quite effectively. Just stand somewhere, anywhere, and you're in a museum.

It appears that there aren't a whole lot of resistance museums in Italy. I've been to the one in Turin; it's very well done, but you won't be in that area. There is one in Rome, which I will visit on my next trip:

https://www.museoliberazione.it/en/i...iberation.html

I first heard of the Museum of the Liberation in Rome that Holly mentions in an article that appeared in the New York Times travel section several years ago. Hopefully, you can access it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/t...an-ghetto.html

The article mentions several sites with significance in WWII (e.g., the bombed church of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, the Jewish Museum) and might be a good starting point.

A good non-fiction book for this period is Rick Atkinson's Day of Battle, which focuses on the Allied advance through Sicily and mainland Italy.

I find it surprising that people don't seem to know what a history museum is as they exist in many major cities. If they don't have one in Rome, that is surprising. This would be a museum like the Museum of London, the City of Prague Museum, the German Historical Museum in Berlin, the Museum of the History of Madrid, etc. etc. And that doesn't even include museums dedicated to military history.

Rome has the Museum of Roman Civilization, but it is still closed for renovation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum...n_Civilization

Several off topic political post have been deleted

Here is my post without the references to the resistance:

First of all keep in mind that history is in the art.

You can study the sculpture of the Dying Gaul purely for its esthetic qualities, but you can also view it as a snapshot into Roman History.

OK, see a list of history musuems.

All over Italy: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...ici_d%27Italia

Rome:

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_..._al_Vittoriano

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrario_delle_Bandiere

Florence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...seum,_Florence

Venice:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Correr

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_storico_navale

When it comes to WW2, Europeans seem to have a selective memory.
A couple of links you might find useful planning.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/wa...invasion-italy

https://www.theflorentine.net/lifest...r-ii-in-italy/

https://www.tripsavvy.com/exploring-...-italy-3976761

This is fantastic all. I do realize that all of Italy is history as are many of the buildings and art museums. We've just found it so useful in the past to visit museums that lay out (usually chronologically) the history of the area we are in. It makes all the rest more meaningful. I remember (and am probably not using exact correct names) museum of French military history on the Rive Gauche, the War museum and the Churchill War rooms in London, Bussaco in Portugal, museum of the Resistance in Norway and incredible Viking era museums in Denmark and Sweden to name a few.
We do plan to go to Ostia Antica, but I'm very excited by the idea of actually walking on the Appian Way - I shall definitely check that out.

Unfortunately my husband's father said very little to the kids about his war years, and he passed away years ago. Steve does know that he took part in the battles near the Po. I'm going to see if I can find out more.

Thank you all for both the book and museum suggestions.

You can check Italian American Museum based in the former Banca Stabile

I also highly recommend the Jewish Museum in Rome. There are fascinating displays and films about all of Jewish history in Rome, which is more than 2000 years. Their guided tour also takes you into the Great Synagogue. You could easily spend two hours there. We went at their last entrance time of the day, and were sorry we hadn't arrived earlier.

Two of the sites of the National Roman Museum focus more on history than on art: the Museum of the Baths of Diocletian, which has an interesting permanent display about the history of writing; and the Crypta Balbi, which focuses on medieval Rome. Another site of the National Roman Museum, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, focuses mainly on its subperb collection of ancient Roman art, but it has a lot of historical information, including ancient coins, household items, and a mummy of a child buried in Rome in Egyptian style.

The Capitoline Museums has a lot of historical information about ancient Rome, along with a fantastic collection of ancient sculpture.

The National Etruscan Museum at Villa Giulia has a lot of interesting exhibits about the history of the ancient Etruscan people, who were dominant in Italy before the Romans.

There's a small museum on the Palatine Hill, part of the same complex as the Roman Forum, which has a lot of information about the early history of Rome.

There's a small museum about Leonardo da Vinci, with models of some of his inventions, in Piazza del Popolo.

There are many archaeological sites in Rome, all of which have a section describing the history of the site. The Roman Forum is, unfortunately, not one of the best. Ostia Antica also is rather lacking in this regard. There are two historical levels in the Basilica di San Clemente, which have good explanations of the history of the site, dating back to when there was a Mithraean temple there.

The Case Romane, under the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, have illustrate the history of the homes and shops that were on the site through the centuries.

All of the catacombs have historical information, and all have their own guided tours, which are included in the entrance price. My favorites are, more or less in order, the Priscilla catacomb, Sant'Agnese, and Domitilla. There are also some Jewish catacombs, which don't have regular opening hours, but which do have tours which can be reserved.

There's a Museum of the Risorgimento (the Italian struggle for unificiation) in the Palazzo Vittoriano. Unfortunately, it's closed for renovations now.

For WWII, as mentioned above, there are several places south of Rome worth visiting. The Beachhead Museum at Anzio, and the American Battle Monuments in nearby Nettuno should be interesting, although I've never visited them. It would be worth combining them with a visit to Montecassino, where a great battle was fought, The great abbey monastery there was destroyed by Allied bombs, but has been reconstructed. Anzio and Nettuno can be reached by train, but it would be best to rent a car if you want to combine the trip with Montecassino.
There is so much history in Rome that it would be difficult to comprehend it in a single building. Unfortunately, there are long centuries from which little remains and about which little was written. Almost nothing remains of medieval Rome, and not much more of Renaissance Rome.

Grazie BVlenci (I got my Rosetta Stone Italian last night (: ). I hadn't thought about the catacombs, great idea. I would also love to learn more about the unification era. It is a shame that one is closed. Ok, you all have been a tremendous help.

In Venice, the Jewish Museum Museum - Museo Ebraico di Venezia

Museo Correr has a Venetian history floor (?)/section. And of course the Doge's Palace. There is also the Museo Storico Navale. These all tell the story of la Serenissima.

As an aside to one of the links that cdnyul posted, there is an excellent museum at Paestum , but it deals almost entirely with the Greek and Roman history - there is a small section about the Salerno invasion, but mostly in connection of where the ancient finds were unearthed by Allied Soldiers building airfields etc.

There is a guidebook for World War II sites in Italy. The title is A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds. The second edition was published in December 2016

Please see the guidebook titled A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds. The second edition was published in December 2016.