2022 was the year of recovery for the Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera (Brescia), with an increase in admissions of almost 50 percent compared to 2021 (49,40 percent to be precise), which led Gabriele d'Annunzio's house museum to close the year with 267.512 visitors (compared to 179.047 in 2021). "An important result that once again places the Vittoriale among the most visited house museums in the world", comments the president of the Il Vittoriale degli Italiani Foundation, historian Giordano Bruno Guerri.

“This result confirms a management model that works and that in recent years has been able to tenaciously face the global pandemic crisis – Guerri underlines – After having faced and overcome the Covid crisis, the Vittoriale degli Italiani will also face that of the increase in bills, in the best way for visitors, to honor the 160th anniversary of the birth of Gabriele d'Annunzio and Bergamo-Brescia Capitals of Culture: that is, without increasing the cost of admissions but by offering new services, initiatives and beauties”.

The anniversary of D'Annunzio's birth
Numerous initiatives are in the pipeline for 2023, starting with the big party that will kick off the Vittoriale's spring season on March 11, on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of Gabriele d'Annunzio's birth. Two exhibitions will be set up for the occasion: the first, to tell the story of Vittorio Cini, a great entrepreneur and patron of the twentieth century, in a new light and through the works of numerous contemporary artists; the second, dedicated to the painter Lorenzo Viani, conceived with the Municipality of Viareggio and set up in the spaces of Villa Mirabella.

And again from May 26 to June 4, the Vittoriale will host some events of “GardaLo!”, the first cultural festival on the Lombardy shore of Lake Garda. This year will see the first truly major edition of the Festival, an event spread across several municipalities that aims to become “a key moment in the summer calendar of Brescia and Lombardy,” explains Guerri.

Among the founders of GardaMusei
The Vittoriale, as stated in a press release from the Foundation, “has played a central role in the Italian cultural panorama for several years now, being, among other things, one of the founding members of the GardaMusei Association, whose main objective is the creation of a cultural network that has gone beyond Garda and extended to six regions, from Trentino to Sicily”.

The goal, Guerri emphasizes, is “a Vittoriale that is increasingly alive and more similar to how the Poet had imagined it: after the conclusion of the 'Riconquista' project, created to restore and make every area of ​​the monumental complex accessible to the public by the centenary year, the restoration work continued on the entrance arch, the loggias and numerous other spaces including the dovecote – where the poet raised his carrier pigeons – and which today houses Fusoliera e Velivolo, a splendid pair of pigeons received as a gift from the Military Engineers and Ardito and Audace, born from the first brood”. “Beautiful, white, with a proud and sweet appearance, Ardito is a symbol of peace, exactly what we all want for 2023”, concludes President Guerri. It should be remembered that the Italian historian, essayist, journalist and academic had visited the capital of Quarnero on several occasions, one of which was the presentation of his book “Disobbedisco. Cinquecento giorni di Rivoluzione. Fiume 1919-1920” which took place in 2019 at the Italian Community of Fiume.

Source: The Voice of the People – August 05, 2023