Rome and the Italian Air Force Museum.

In our irregular series of modellers guides to cities around the world are we going to give some ideas for visiting Rome and the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle.

The Italian Air Force Museum (Museo Storico A. M.) has its own website in Italian. Click on the info button and after a while will you get information regarding opening hours and a map that shows the museums location NW of Rome. It does also list phone/fax/Email.

The easiest way to get to the museum would be driving towards the village of Bracciano located close to Lago Di Bracciano, main problem would be getting your car in and out of Rome itself. If you are driving on SS493 towards Bracciano then take a small meandering road called SP11B, it leaves the main road and heads towards the lake less than a km before you reach Vigna di Valle station. It is reasonably well signposted.

If you like me decide to leave the driving in Rome to the Romans, the best option is probably to catch a local train. Trains in the direction of Bracciano leave Rome Ostiense station on a regular basis, you can find updated information on https://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html

On an ordinary weekday are there two trains an hour that stops in Bracciano, but only one of them stops at the Vigna di Valle station. Travel time is a little more than one hour.

To get to the Rome Ostiense station, take the Metro to Piramide and follow the signs.
A single ticket from Rome to Vigna di Valle / Bracciano costs about 3€, you will have to buy it from an automat or the stations ticket office. (No ticket sale in trains)

Timetables etc on the station are difficult to understand so I suggest using the Trenitalia website in advance to find out when your train leaves the station.

If you alight at Vigna di Valle will you see that there is nothing in the area except a closed station building and a small gas station / bar. The shortest way to the museum would be to head across the fields over the hill and towards the lake, but since they are made up of a combination of farm land and an active military base guarded by armed sentries do I not recommend going that route.

Instead, head back towards Rome along the main road for about 1km being careful not to get run over and take the first road to the left that crosses the rail tracks. Follow this meandering road uphill and take to the left after you have started the descent towards the lake.

Follow the road along the lake until you see a number of large hangars and a seaplane ramp with a crane painted like a barber pole. The lake is one of the largest in Italy and is inside a crater – take a couple of moments to admire the scenery.

There are yellow signs pointing in the right direction along the whole way.
Be aware that when I planned my trip I used www.mapquest.com and it gave a position much further to the East for the museum – could it be because it is on a still active base?

I walked the distance in a little more than half an hour.

When arriving at the base gate you will be asked to hand in your passport or similar ID for registration, it takes about a minute or so before you get your papers back along with a leaflet showing the layout of the museum and one I believes details how you are supposed to behave.

Unfortunately, both are in Italian only, but since there is an active AF base next to the museum is it my impression that they do not want you to take photos outside the museum.

You can get to see fledgling helicopter pilots learning the art of landing and taking off with floats on the lake. (Entry is free to the museum)

(If they ask for “documente” when you want to enter an Italian museum does it mean handing in your passport or other ID for registration – sometimes they keep it as long as you stay in the building).

The museum has four large hangars full of aircraft from before WW1 to the ones just being taken out of service, a small bar/cafeteria and a souvenir/book shop.

There is also the Umberto Nobile documentation centre next door. Aircraft in the museum include a Caproni Ca 3 bomber, Austrian-Hungarian Lohner flying boat, a couple of SPADs, the gondola of Nobiles N-1 “Norge” airship, Schneider Cup Race entrants that look ready to be hoisted out on the lake and take off on a high speed run.

There are also other Italian military aircraft restored to very high standards on display, one of the latest additions being a Fiat CR 42. The next two hangars hold aircraft from WW2 and later, with a balcony above with some light aircraft and helicopters.

You can expect to spend a whole day there to see the treasures, when I was there in March were most of the visitors well behaved school children with there teachers - a couple of servicemen in uniform and a few tourists making up the numbers.

If you intend to take photos, be aware that the light is much better in the morning when sunshine enters the large windows overlooking the lake, it gets a lot darker towards the evening. In general the hangars are well lit and there is a bit of room around the most important aircraft so you can get a good view of them.

When going back to Rome did I catch the train from the village of Bracciano, it took me almost one hour to walk there from the museum, but I may not have taken the shortest way.

Most of the time did I walk along the Via Circumlacuale which follows the lakes shore before heading up towards the village which overlooks the surrounding area.

If you are going to the museum from Bracciano station should it be easy to head down towards the lake and follow the road towards the museum.

Note that there are no trains heading towards Rome between 17.45 and 19.45, I do not know if it is to give the train personnel time for a proper dinner or to give the trains with commuters returning from Rome the way of right on the single track.

Bracciano is a historical city with castle Orsini Odescalchi as its main attraction, and you can find a good restaurant there even outside the tourist season – much better to be stuck there for a while than in the no-mans land around Stazione Di Vigna di Valle.

For info on Bracciano see here and here . You might get a taxi from there to the museum in the morning and get the man at the gate to help you with calling one when you are leaving.

In Rome

There are a number of military museums in Rome, you can visit the web site of the armed forces museums and get an idea of opening hours and locations. Most have limited opening hours, mainly early in the morning.

One I would have liked to visit is Il Museo storico della Motorizzazione Militare which is supposed to have an impressive collection of military vehicles – I think it is open only on Saturdays.

I visited Museo Storico dell`Arma del Genio in Lungotevere Della Vittoria 31which deals with the history of Italian combat engineers from the days of Caesar to this day.

They have an original Bleriot XI on display as well as a large number of models showing how to build fortresses for your own side and how to gain entry into those held by the enemy. Also containing the set-up used by Marconi for the first radio transmissions and the Italian carrier pigeons hall of fame.

Be gentle when waking up the guard behind the desk there and hand over your passport, (remember – documente?) you will get it back when leaving the museum. Entry is free.

Model and book shops in Rome – well I didn`t find any great prices or selections, but here are a couple of addresses, most of the shops on my list can be reached by taking tram #19:

Aviolibri located at Via dei Marsi is a medium sized bookshop with a decent selection of old and new Italian books. You can check out their web site to get an idea of what they stock. Located 15min walk from Roma Termini (Central station)
They do not close for lunch.

Most model shops in Rome stock a combination of model trains, die casts, RC and static models. If looking for die casts could you start with a visit to some shops in Via della Terme di Diocleziano leading to Piazza Repubblica about five minutes walk from Roma Termini, there are also stalls selling second hand books there from ten in the morning to eight in the evening.

Not far from Roma Termini is Model Market 2 located in Via Goito 13-15, a bit of everything with regards to modelling can be found in this shop

Another model shop in an area close to where tourists tend to go is Giorni Modellismo in Via Dei Gracci 31/33 North of the Vatican state, close to Piazza del Risorgimento where tram#19 ends – the best stocked model shop that I found in Rome. https://www.giornimodellismo.com L`Aquilotto model shop at Viale Regina Margherita 240 is also located along the tracks of tram#19, its specialty is 1:72 miniature soldiers.

IPMS Stockholms model shop guide lists one more shop that I didn`t get to:
Galleria Tuscolana at Via Quintilio Varo 54 (Near Metro A station Giulio Agricola).

Rome is definitely worth a visit, I did find time to visit some of the classic sites and you do feel like walking through history along with the other tourists there.

It is as safe as any other large European city, taking the usual precautions of not dangling expensive photo equipment in front of everyone and keeping an eye on where you go. Just be careful when walking due to the traffic/parking, the friendly and relaxed Italians change into formula one drivers when they get into a car. If you have found a street too narrow for cars and feel safe – guess where the motorcycles and scooters will speed up…

Romans are used to tourists, even if fluent English may not be spoken by everyone have they developed the art of communication using a mix of Italian, English and various signs so that you will be able to get along without too many problems.

If you find errors or omissions, please contact me on knut.erik.hagen(at) eunet.no.