The Piana delle Orme Museum is a park museum in the province of Latina, where approximately 50,000 finds are preserved and exhibited. The finds are organized in thematic pavilions. Everything is contextualized with the territory, as the finds are organized temporally, from the reclamation of the Agro Pontino to the Landing of Anzio during the Second World War. I discovered the museum thanks to an on line advertisement; then I took advantage of the April 25 long weekend to visit it. It took me about 4 hours for the complete visit and I was fascinated by it. Let’s go in order, however, before drawing conclusions on what I think of the museum.
Piana delle Orme Museum: history and characteristics
As reported on the museum’s website, Piana delle Orme is a theme park created within the homonymous
agritourism company. The park hosts one of the largest and most varied collections in the world. The complex is dedicated to the 20th century, covering approximately 50 years of Italian history. We are talking about an exhibition that extends to about 30,000 square meters. The museum was born in 1997 from the collection of Mariano De Pasquale (1938-2006) entrepreneur, founder and owner of a floriculture company. Through this exhibition, we can discover the life of the countryside and understand how Agro Pontino has changed, without forgetting the war period and the vehicle that appeared for the first time in that historical period.
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Piana delle Orme Museum: organization of the area
The exhibition is organized in 16 pavilions of 1,500 square meters each and arranged in two rows. The exhibits tell the story of the past of the Pontine Marshes, from the reclamation to the war period,
“covering” different areas: we find toys, work tools, everyday objects, tractors and pumps used for reclamation and after reclamation, trams, cars, motorcycles, weapons and military vehicles (e.g. aeroplanes, tanks, helicopters, jeeps, etc.) and more. Each pavilion deals with a single theme, offering educational reconstructions full of animations and sound effects. We find scenographic installations without barriers between the exhibits and the visitors. Once past the ticket office, we can already see the two rows of pavilions: the one on the left dedicated to agriculture and daily life in times of peace and the one on the right dedicated to war themes related to the Second World War (Anzio was the scene of the Allied landing).
Piana delle Orme Museum: the itinerary – period of peace
Let’s start with the pavilions on the left, dedicated to games, the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes and life in the fields of the area.
Vintage Toys
Here are exposed toy cars, planes, ships, technological and educational toys, work vehicles, automatons, dolls and related furnishings, robots and spaceships, military vehicles and toy soldiers, from the late 19th to the late 20th century.
the Pontine Marshes
The itinerary tells the story of the Pontine Marshes area: the environment, the inhabitants and the activities carried out in this part of the region.
Vintage Agricultural Vehicles
Here we find more than three hundred examples, from the first steam locomotives to tractors with petrol engines. Dozens of tractors and tools are on display that tell and represent the most important stages of agricultural mechanization. Here we also find harrows, seeders, balers, forage harvesters and threshers.
Life in the Fields
This pavilion retraces the path that led us to what we call the nutritional, economic and social well-being that we experience today. The traditions and peasant culture that have been partly lost today are recounted here: for example, the pavilion tells how bread, wine, oil and more were made in the past; furthermore, the functioning of a charcoal kiln and the method of threshing wheat are shown. A barber’s salon and a blacksmith’s workshop are reconstructed. Finally, the period of emigration from the south to the industries of northern Italy is described.
Piana delle Orme Museum: war period
In this part, the exhibition is dedicated to the war period.
Deportation and internment
Here we find a reconstructed railway station with vintage carriages and locomotives: this tells the story of the deportation of Italian Jews to the Nazi extermination camps.
Vintage War Vehicles
Exhibition of the most diverse military equipment used during the War of National Liberation by the Allied forces, as well as those of the Nazi-Fascist Axis. Dozens of means of transport, artillery pieces, amphibious vehicles, mobile structures of the military engineers, the Red Cross and more are on display.
From El Alamein to Messina and Salerno
Here the story of Italy’s entry into the war alongside Nazi Germany is told. In one room you can hear Mussolini’s voice, as he speaks from the balcony of Piazza Venezia, informing the Italians via radio of the entry into the war: immediately afterwards you can hear a cannon shot, which shakes the floor and serves to make visitors understand what the climate was at the time. The route then tells the story of the army’s mobilization and the departure for the front.
Anzio Landing
This pavilion tells the story of the landing operations, the bloody battle of the Rangers, the evacuations and the inside of a shelter. A short film retraces its history. A section is dedicated to the Curtiss P40L.
Battle of Cassino
This section recalls the bloody events linked to the Cassino front.
Civilian Use of War Remnants
Telecommunications History Laboratory.
Piana delle Orme Museum: Air-Naval Pole
This is an open-air area, located on the other side of the area from the ticket office. You get there when you finish visiting the first part of the pavilions and before discovering those on the right side and “going back” towards the exit. Here, historic air and naval vehicles belonging to the Italian Air Force and the Guardia di Finanza are exhibited. Among these, we also find the Lockheed PV-2 “Harpoon” anti-submarine patrol boat, the only aircraft of its kind in Europe, and the fast patrol boat V.4001 “Drago”.
The visit to the museum
For my visit, I followed the advice given by the lady at the ticket office: after buying the ticket,
I first visited the pavilions dedicated to the peace period, reaching the open-air air-naval area; then, going back towards the ticket office and the exit, I visited the pavilions dedicated to the war period. Excluding the time spent on lunch, about half an hour in the restaurant near the ticket office (we were the only ones sitting at that time), it took me about 4 hours to visit everything: a long time, which led me to finish the tour just before the first pavilions started to close. At the end of the visit, I admit, my thought was: the 13 euros of the ticket were definitely well spent! The exhibition is, in my opinion, well done and considering the length of the visit I think that this is a museum with a good (if not excellent) quality-price ratio. I found the entire museum/park very interesting, and the exhibition was very well thought out in the path and in the structure in general.
Useful information
Address: Strada Migliara 43 1/2, 29, 04100 Latina;
Official website: pianadelleorme.it;
Entrance ticket: 13 euros for the full price ticket;
Services: you can eat in the bar/restaurant at the entrance. There are some bathrooms along the way (I didn’t use them, I can’t give an opinion on how they are kept); I also saw some vending machines for buying drinks and snacks;
Parking: there is a large free parking lot on site. Arriving at about 12:30 I had no problem to park my car;
