Museo Civico del Risorgimento di Bologna

We went our separate ways this morning … meeting up for lunch at Il Duca di Amalfi for a quick bite following our individual outings.

Mui headed to Casalecchio to run some errands. Namely, to get materials to put up insect screens. The use of such screens doesn’t seem to be prevalent in Italy … at least around the Centro Storico of Bologna. We have neither a balcony nor a terrace at the apartment, and like to open the windows to ‘bring the outside in’ …. get some fresh air. Hence, a home improvement project for Mui. The screen material is easy enough to cut to size and tack up with a strip designed for that purpose. Two windows down … three or more to go.

In the meantime, I headed out to a museum that Mui showed little interest in visiting.

The word Risorgimento literally translates as resurgence or rising again. This civic museum, which was inaugurated in 1893, focuses on the 19th century political and social movement that resulted in the Unification of Italy.

It was founded to (1) instill “… patriotic ideals in the general public, and particularly in the younger generations;” and (2) “… promote historical research on the recent past …”. To accomplish the latter, a library was founded in 1904, but is housed elsewhere in the city.

The museum covers the time frame from the Napoleonic Age through WWI … the latter considered the conclusion of the Italian unification process. The exhibits in the display cases are accordingly laid out, with the periods in between covering European Restoration, Italian Unification, and United Italy.

Currently, the museum’s exhibit space is housed on the ground floor of Casa Carducci … a national monument that was once the home of writer/poet Giosuè Carducci.

A 20-25 minute walk on a very pleasant day brought me from the apartment to the museum, where I presented my Card Cultura to receive free admission. During the entire time I was there, I had the place to myself. I didn’t mind that at all 😉.

There is little to read at the museum … except for some proclamations, leaflets, declarations, and such. I imagine most of the written material is in the library. I would categorize the museum more as an exhibit of artifacts, of which just a small portion of the museum’s collection is on display.

There is no signage … just numbers identifying the items in each case. No worries. I was given a booklet that allowed me to match items with descriptions. My booklet was in English, but I imagine they have them in other languages as well. Having the place to myself allowed me to take my time viewing, identifying, and photographing some of the exhibited items. The latter was a challenge since all but a few were in glass display cases, but I did my best.

P.S Saved another €3 (65+ admission) … leaving me with €12 to break even on my Card Cultura purchase.Read more