Did you know that there are is a museum in every city of Italy? Italy is home to half of the world’s greatest art. The Italian renaissance left a magnificent legacy of paintings and sculptures that decorates Italian museums, buildings and churches throughout the country.
But what about the many other museums located in Italy? The other underrated museums in Italy that doesn’t get much recognition by travellers backpacking around Italy?
These are the 7 underrated museums located around Italy that you should visit the next time you hop on the plane to Italy.
1) Secret Museum, Naples
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The Secret Museum or Secret Cabinet (Gabinetto Segreto) of Naples is a collection of erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum, held in separate galleries in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy.
The collections in this museum were found after the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 19th Century. The collection in this museum was locked away for almost a century and a half in a secret cabinet for it erotic art and displays.
The assemblage of erotic arts in this museum is what made it be given restricted access to the public. The collection was finally opened to the public eye in 2000 and moved to a separate gallery in 2005.
Location: Piazza Museo, 19, 80135 Napoli, Italy
Opening hours: 9am to 7.30pm every day. Closed on Tuesday
2) Palazzo Te, Mantua
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Pallazo Te is a museum and a cultural center in Mantua, northern Italy, as well as a masterpiece of Italian High Renaissance art and architecture designed and decorated by Giulio Romano in the early 16th century. Giulio Romano was a pupil of Raphael in Rome. The Palazzo Te building was conceived by Giulio Romano between 1524 and 1530 as a pleasure palace for Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.
Image credit: Wikimedia
Palazzo Te is also a publicly-owned museum and a cultural center which regularly hosts exhibitions and special events. The museum features four small collections of art and archaeology;
• The Egyptian Collection comprises some 500 artifacts from the Ancient Egypt
• The Mesopotamic Collection includes cuneiform inscriptions, amulets, and votive statues from the ancient Near East
• The Gonzaga Collection features coins, medals, weights and measures dating from the 13th century to 18th century
• The Mondadori Collection presents late-19th century works by Italian painters Federico Zandomeneghi, and Armando Spadini.
Location: Viale Te, 13, 46100 Mantova MN, Italy
Opening hours: 9am to 6pm on Tuesday to Sunday. 1pm to 6pm on Monday
3) The National Archaeological Museum, Naples
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The National Archaeological Museum in Naples is one of the most important and largest archaeological museums in the world. It was founded in 1887 and is particularly renowned for its collection of Roman antiquities. The collections comprise over 3,000 artifacts. There are collections from the Prehistoric, Etruscan, and Greek pieces from Naples and southern Italy. There are also Roman artifacts – including sculptures, mosaics, frescoes, glassware, ceramics, silverware, and jewels from all over Italy. This museum also has an Egyptian Collection that includes sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi, papyri, and ceramics dating from the 27th century B.C to the 2nd century.
Location: Piazza Museo, 19, 80135 Napoli, Italy
Opening hours: 9am to 7.30pm every day. Closed on Tuesday
4) Masseria Brancati, Ostuni
The Masseria Brancati offers both a bed and breakfast and a tour around its farm. Learn about the history of Masseria Brancati and the product along the way. This museum offers a guided tour to the monumental olive trees, ancient fortified farm and also a tasting of organic extra virgin olive oils.
The Monumental Olive Trees in this farm range from more than 2,000 to 3,000 years old. See actual tools dating back from the from Mesopotamian, Roman, Medieval and 18th century in the tour and also an underground chamber where olives, donkeys and people used to share space.
Location: Contrada Brancati, 72017, Ostuni, Italy
Opening hours: 9am to 7pm every day. Must do Pre-Booking
5) Vittoriale degli Italiani, Gardone Riviera
The Vittoriale degli Italiani is most famously known as a house of a World War 1 hero and poet. Gabriele d'Annunzio, decorated his home most extravagantly but also unsettling to some. A trip here will give you a tour around a dimly lit, highly idiosyncratic villa, a war museum and tiered gardens complete with full-sized battleship. Packed with more than 30,000 books and 10,000 objects, every surface in the house, except the kitchen, is cluttered with paintings, furniture, frescoes and strange objects such as Murano glass fruit baskets, Ancient Roman columns, death masks, statues of Buddhas and icons of Christian saints. The art-nouveau Casa Schifamondo ('Escape from the World') nearby this estate is full of mementoes, banners and medals of d'Annunzio's war-time exploits.
Location:Via Al Vittoriale 12, 25083 Gardone Riviera, Italy
Opening hours: 9am to 9pm every day
Image credit: Wikimedia
6) Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
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The Peggy Guggenheim Art Collection is a museum on the Grand Canal in Venice known for its collection of European and American modern art. The permanent collection is composed of major artworks by some of the most important exponents of Cubism, Futurism, European Abstractionism, Metaphysical Painting, Surrealism, and American Abstract Expressionism, including Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and many more.
Location: Dorsoduro, 701-704, 30123 Venezia, Italy
Opening hours: 10am to 6pm every day. Closed on Tuesday
Image credit: Wikimedia
7) LAES - La Napoli Sotterranea, Naples
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Discover the best of the underground of Naples in this tour guided in the underground. Visitors coming down in the cavities of the old cisterns of the Carmignano aqueduct will be able to admire and feel the history of those who took refuge there during World War 2. Plastered on the walls are history, drawings, names and caricature of the age, customs of the age, soldiers of several nations, dates, information on the two Italian submarines, the Diaspro and the Topazio, that had operated during the war.
Location: Vico S. Anna di Palazzo, 52, 80132, Naples, Italy
Opening hours: 10am to 6pm on Friday to Wednesday. 10am to 9pm on Thursday
Have this list peaked your interest in visiting these museums in Italy? Find fun and knowleadgable locals on the mobile app www.nuflit.com/app. The Nuflit app offers a selection of locals who know their way around Italy.
Below are some locals who can bring you around Italy. Tap the image below or www.nuflit.com/d/italy to find out more!
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