Altar of the Fatherland Tour with the Museum of Risorgimento

Altar of the Fatherland

Our tour of the Altar of the Fatherland begins at the foot of the imposing stairways.
From here we can easily observe the whole monument and the most significant
sculptures. Then, we will continue the visit going up to the level of the equestrian
statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, the center of the composition, by the sculptors
Chiaradia and Gallori, a bronze sculpture of colossal dimensions.
From this point, you will have a better view of the decoration of the base and the
statue of the goddess Roma, the center of the composition.
We will climbing the Terrace of the Bulletin, for more comfortable viewing of the
upper levels of the monument, and a panoramic look from above the square.
The Altar of the Fatherland tour will continue inside the monument. Our first stop
inside the Altar will be the Crypt of the Unknown Soldier that since November 4,
1921, houses the remains of an anonymous young soldier, who died in the First
World War, representing all the Italians who fell, whose bodies were never
identified.
Then, we will visit the Sacrarium of Flags, which displays the flags used in the
battles for the independence and the unification of Italy. We will move to the
Sacrarium of the Navy, which houses the flags of navy units now disarmed, along
with memorabilia of the history of the Navy.
Leaving the Altar of the Fatherland, to complete our guided tour we will pay a visit
to the Museum of the Risorgimento, rich in relics and testimonies of three
centuries of our history.

Museum of the Risorgimento

The Central Museum of the Risorgimento, second step of our Altar of the
Fatherland tour, was designed at the beginning of ‘900, upon completion of the
Altar of the Fatherland itself.
The guided tour of the museum’s collections will take visitors inside the Vittoriano,
in a space that along the walls, houses pieces of important witnesses and
protagonists of the history of Italy. The testimonies exhibited are drawn from the
rich archives of the Institute of the Risorgimento, consisting not only of paper
materials but items such as memorabilia, etchings, paintings, weapons, as well as
photographs and printed books, selected for their educational and
historiographical value.
Our itinerary of visiting the Museum of the Risorgimento, then winds through the
following sections of the exhibition:

• The Napoleonic Period;
• The Congress of Vienna;
• The Revolution of 1820-1821 and 1830-1831;
• Giuseppe Mazzini and Young Italy;
• Pius IX;
• 1848: the Five Days of Milan;
• the Republic of San Marco;
• the First War of Independence;
• 1849 and the Roman Republic;
• Cavour and the Crimean War;
• Vittorio Emanuele II and the War of Independence;
• Garibaldi and the Thousand Red Shirts;
• From unification to Aspromonte;
• The Third War of Independence;
• 1870 the capture of Porta Pia.

Amongst the most curious and interesting items of our tour, are the trousers of
Garibaldi, worn during the landing at Marsala, boots pierced by a bullet in
Aspromonte, the death masks of Mazzini and Cavour, the album of photographs of
the Thousand, a selection of weapons that belonged to the protagonists of the
Risorgimento, the gun carriage used for transporting the body of the Unknown
Soldier and many more.
To complement the visit to the Museum of the Risorgimento, along the way, you
can view rare period films and listen to military songs from the 19th century and
the First World War.