Sunday 5 January 2014

Museo Storico Navale, Venice

This was a great find. It tells Venice's naval history, then the history of the Italian Navy plus of course a section on gondolas, fishing boats, liners and merchant vessels. There was also a section on the development of ships from dug outs to galleys etc with models of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman ships. Talking of models and dioramas this museum abounds with them. Venice was the birth place of Italy's famous motor torpedo boats, including the 'pig' and I found this section really interesting. Great ideas for games here.
 
The museum didn't just cover ships it also displayed naval uniforms and covered naval aviation.
 
As a bonus, there was a display sponsored by Sweden celebrating their close association with Italy and their purchase of Italian naval ships. So I got to see a history of the Swedish navy from ancient times to present.
 
Again while we were there in 2012 they had a gallery of far eastern ship models it was interesting.
 
Right at the top we also got to see a display of sea animals mainly corals and sea shells. I didn't bother photographing these!