Storytelling at Lake Bracciano: The Italian Air Force Museum

There are many fine military aviation museums in the world but living in Italy means I don’t need to fly far to find one. The Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare Italiana, Italian Air Force Museum, located on Lake Bracciano has an impressive collection of aircraft from powered flight’s earliest days to today’s jets.

The display aircraft make up the majority of the museum and instead of covering the museum with walls of text detailing how the Air Force came to be, the Italian Air Force effectively uses the aircraft themselves. Comprehensive in its volume of aircraft, which are arranged chronologically, they tell the Air Force’s story with gleaming aluminum and sometimes a bit of camouflage. A row of aircraft show technological advancement and the changing insignia and paint schemes show shifting and sometimes divided loyalties, all of which is ably supported by each aircraft’s write up. Thankfully almost everything in the museum is in English, allowing non-Italians to fully appreciate what they are seeing. For visitors this means those who came to appreciate the aesthetics of the aircraft but hate reading won’t have large chunks of museum to skip, and for those of us who enjoy the stories, it’s told piece by piece as you move along.

The museum itself is the perfect starting point for learning about Italy’s aviation past as it is situated on the site of a seaplane base, Italy’ first, that went into operation a few years after the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight. It’s made of four hangars, each focusing on a different era of aviation.

The World War I hangar is composed almost entirely of original, non-reproduction aircraft aside from the replica Wright Flyer. It has two ace-flown biplane fighters and a one-of-a-kind war trophy- a captured Austrian seaplane, the last in existence.

The Caproni Campini N.1 was among the world’s first jets. A hybrid jet engine that used a compressor to power a regular aircraft engine, it first flew in 1940.

Italian aircraft are all about speed and nothing highlights this as well as the Between the Wars hangar, with its row of red-painted record-breaking and award winning racing seaplanes. Airplane races were as popular as boot-legging and the Charleston between the World Wars. The biggest technological marvel in the hangar is Italy’s first jet which flew in 1940, three years before the first Allied jets. The winged cigar looks a decade ahead of its time with it’s in-fuselage engine and gaping maw, similar to Korean War-era fighters.

This hangar also houses a few aircraft better known for their World War II service but also served in the lesser-studied Spanish Civil War when Italian “legionaries” flew their country’s latest warplanes with Spanish Nationalist markings and blacked out roundels in support of Francisco Franco. Franco’s victory, brought about with Italian and German help, ensured Spanish neutrality in World War II and Franco stayed in power until his death in 1975.

One the last two surviving Macchi C. 202 ‘Folgore’ (Thunderbolt) fighters is on display at the Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force Museum). First flying in 1940, the Macchi C.202 was one of Italy’s finest fighters and served throughout Europe and North Africa in World War II. This one is decorated in North African camouflage.

The role played by the Italian Air Force in World War II is often underplayed and little known, but Italians flew German troops in Russia, bombed England in the Battle of Britain and opposed Allied airpower in Africa. Fittingly the World War II hangar begins with one of the last two existing Macchi C. 202 ‘Folgore’ fighters in a North Africa diorama and camouflage.

It’s also here that aircraft are presented with the liveries of two different yet co-existing Italian Air Forces. One flew for the Allies while the other continued to fight for Mussolini and the Axis. This is one of the areas that best illustrated how the Air Force’s story is told without bludgeoning the visitor with large panel displays explicitly stating the history but rather letting it be seen and told via the aircraft and their accompanying write ups. This is also probably one of the few air museum in which German and British aircraft can be seen side-by-side because both were used by the same nation during the War.

Italy entered the jet age early but after the War relied almost entirely on foreign or licensed aircraft to fill its fighter and bomber ranks as can be seen in the jet age hangar. Half the room is dominated by American aircraft including an evolutionary chart’s worth of 1950s fighters as well as a British DeHavilland Vampire two-seat night fighter. The twin-boom jet is favorite of mine as its design is reminiscent of World War II’s P-38 Lightning. Being British, it’s also a rare sight in my own country’s museums so I enjoy trying to find them.

Total visit time was four hours, though I also am a very avid photographer and read pretty much everything they had in English. Photography-wise most of the hangars were photo-friendly except the Cold War hangar which has dim internal lighting complimented by external daylight blasting part of the room from windows leading to stark light/dark contrasts on some aircraft.

The only area I had trouble with for learning where some displays on Italy’s polar expeditions in the 1920s and massive trans-Atlantic formation flights of a now near extinct bomber, the S.55, which sadly the museum does not have.

To get to the museum I took a train to Rome then another to Vigna di Valle, though I could have gotten off at Anguillara. Both stations are a reasonable 15 Euro flat-rate taxi ride away from the museum and Anguillara is a real station with regular service to and from Rome whereas Vigna di Valle does not have trains returning to Rome. Total travel time from Naples to the museum was about three hours.

For Naples-based visitors, the Italian Air Force Museum is best visited as part of a Roman holiday and not a standalone day trip. The museum is situated on the shores of beautiful Lake Bracciano, which looks to be a good spot for sailing and swimming and the surrounding area is full of nature trails, has Etruscan ruins and even a medieval castle.

As the museum is owned by the Italian Air Force admittance is free. In Italian it goes by both Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare Italiana or the shorter Museo Storico di Vigna di Valle, which may cause some confusion if you’re looking for road signs to the museum.

Visiting a good war museum should be like attending a veteran’s reunion because every old veteran inside has a story to tell and the Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare Italiana has a lot of old veterans.