The ANNOTICO Report

The Piana delle Orme museum is in Latina, Italy, about 2½ hours north of
Naples,and is a great museum for learning about Italy’s participation in
World War II, AND telling how the Pontine Marshes, a low-lying area south
of Rome, were drained and turned into farmland by Benito Mussolini in the
1920s, AND it’s an old-toy museum.

It is sort of  Italy’s version of the Smithsonian Institution.

HISTORY LOVERS WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED BY PIANA DELLE ORME

Italian museum is three educational excursions in one

Stars and Stripes
European edition,
By Jason Chudy,
Wednesday, May 11, 2005

The Piana delle Orme museum is a great museum for learning about Italy’s
participation in World War II.

It’s also a museum dedicated to telling how the Pontine Marshes, a
low-lying area south of Rome, were drained and turned into farmland by
Benito Mussolini in the 1920s.

And, it’s an old-toy museum.

Any way you look at it, the Piana delle Orme museum in Latina, Italy, about
an hour’s drive north of Naval Support Activity Gaeta and about 2½ hours
north of Naples, covers a lot of ground, both figuratively and literally,
with large, detailed displays.

It’s a museum that, if you’re into old vehicles, could easily be Italy’s
version of the Smithsonian Institution.

Piana delle Orme has enough stuff to keep an adult busy for hours. Plus,
its many life-size dioramas with plenty of sounds and flashing lights will
keep the younger crowd entertained at the same time.

Tucked away in an Italian farm field, the museum is housed in what looks
like a string of old warehouses surrounding a grassy courtyard. The first
look is deceiving.

Visitors walking into the first building — housing old toys and military
models — can immediately see the amount of effort and detail that the
museum has placed in its displays.

The toys range from old trains and cars — including Italian carabinieri car
toys — to dolls. The military models include everything from aircraft
carriers and battleships to the B-2 stealth bomber.

The second building holds life-size dioramas showing construction of the
canals that helped drain the malarial Pontine Marshes. Large, descriptive
plaques and display boards are in Italian, English and German, giving
Americans a much better understanding of what they’re seeing.

Most of these large dioramas include oral narratives that are triggered by
visitors. These, too, are in three languages, so if an American group is
visiting, all someone has to do is press the button marked “English” and
the narrative is all there in, well, plain English.

The military displays, which take up nearly half of the museum’s buildings,
are very detailed and extremely well done. Two of the museum’s more unusual
pieces are an amphibious Sherman tank that had been fished out of the ocean
near Salerno, south of Sicily, and a P-40 Warhawk fighter plane that was
forced to land in the water off the Anzio beach.

The pilot who landed the plane has been to the museum, and display boards
explain the details (in three languages) of both the wartime landing and
recovery less than 10 years ago.

While the Piana delle Orme museum is hard to find, it is more than worth a
visit. Do not let its hefty 10 euros price tag for adults deter you from
visiting.

And there is one other feature that makes it a good place to visit: It’s
probably one of the few museums in Italy that doesn’t showcase old Roman
pottery.

PHOTO: In one display at the Piana delle Orme museum, designed to look like
the ruins of the abbey at Monte Cassino, life-sized mannequins dressed as
German soldiers “surrender” to Allied troops. At least a dozen large
displays depicting World War II scenes are featured at the museum.

PHOTO:A rare amphibious Sherman tank from World War II is on display at the
museum. The tank was lost off the Salerno coast and recovered in 1998. The
tank actually floated and was moved by two propellers on its rear
underside. The black skeleton surrounding the tank would be covered by a
rubber shield and the tank would float ashore, drop the skeleton and
shield, then drive off.

PHOTO:Miniature toy soldiers from various armies of World War II are part
of the Piana delle Orme museum. Toy soldiers from many wars, including the
U.S. Civil War are on display in the museum's large toy museum.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?
section=103&article=28976
 

On the QT ...

DIRECTIONS: From Gaeta, take the Rome Road north to Terracina, where the
road splits into SS 148 and SS 7 (Via Appia).

Follow SS 7 north about 10 miles until you come to a stoplight at SS 156
(signs show Latina and Borgo San Michele). Turn left toward Latina; at the
next stoplight, turn left again.

About a mile down the road turn right (there’s a small, brown museum sign
at the intersection) and Piana delle Orme is on the left a few hundred
yards down the road.

COSTS: Adult tickets are 10 euros. Tickets for children 6 to 12 are 8
euros. Children younger than 6 are admitted free.

TIMES: The museum opens daily at 9 a.m. year-round. During the summer the
museum closes at 6:30 p.m., except Sundays when it closes at 5 p.m. In
winter, it closes at 4 p.m., and is closed all day on Christmas.

FOOD: There is a restaurant on site, but food also is available in nearby
Latina. You also can take a picnic lunch, as there is a large area with
tables and benches.

INFORMATION: The museum Web site features Italian, German and English
versions. Information also is available by phone at 0773-258-708.

— Jason Chudy