edited by
Edith Gabrielli
from November 7, 2025 to January 11, 2026
Vittoriano, Sala Zanardelli - Palazzo Venezia, Giardino Grande
In this spirit, VIVE - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia is highlighting this important legacy with the exhibition Italian Railways (1861–2025). From national unity to the challenges of the future. The exhibition is organized together with Italian State Railways, which in 2025 celebrates one hundred and twenty years of activity. Established in 1905 during the Giolitti era, the State Railways have accompanied every phase of national history ever since: from the world wars to reconstruction, from the economic boom to globalization, up to today's challenges of technology and sustainability.
In the exhibition, the railway phenomenon is addressed on multiple, linked, and interconnected levels. The graphic material and documents, images, and artworks establish a close and intense dialogue, restoring a comprehensive dimension to the train journey.
"But more than any other administrative reform, the realization of the railways will serve to consolidate the achievement of national independence," wrote Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, as early as the 1840s.
In his vision, trains were meant to connect peoples and territories, transforming the political geography into a vibrant network of exchanges and relationships, ultimately forming a free, united, and modern nation.
The history of Italy and the history of the railways are tightly intertwined. The tracks, trains, and stations have contributed to forging a new collective identity, reflected in the works of artists and writers, as a symbol of progress and modernity, but sometimes also of their contradictions.
The exhibition, which benefits from a scientific committee composed of Professor Francesco Benigno (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa), Professor Lorenzo Canova (University of Molise), Professor Andrea Giuntini (formerly University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), and Professor Stefano Maggi (University of Siena), is accompanied by a catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale, for which reference should be made to the volume's description.
The narrative is constructed through a plurality of materials and languages that contribute, without hierarchy, to conveying the complexity of the theme. The supporting texts, of rigorous scientific foundation, find a visual counterpart in the specially created video installations which assemble documentary materials, photographs, and historical footage.
Paintings, from Salvatore Fergola to Marco Verrelli, passing through De Nittis, Boccioni, and de Chirico; sculptures, from Boggio to Mattiacci; photographs by great Italian authors, such as Battaglia, Berengo Gardin, Abate, Basilico, Scianna, and Jodice, up to the younger Anna Di Prospero; film sequences, from Visconti to Fellini; advertising caroselli (short commercial spots) by Pascali; performance videos by John Cage and Sissi; collages by Paolini; installations by Kounellis and Lelario; excerpts of literature and poetry, from Carducci to Starnone, intertwine different perspectives, eras, and sensibilities. Thus, moments where the documentary dimension prevails alternate with others where poetic and symbolic reflection emerges, offering a polyphonic narration capable of blending rigor and evocation.
The immersive room, named Journey Through Time, complements the exhibition itinerary, offering an emotional layer to the experience. From a museological perspective, it serves two complementary functions: on one hand, it allows visitors to sensorially re-elaborate the exhibition's content, transforming knowledge into experience; on the other, by opening the space to creativity and technological experimentation, it gives a contemporary language to historical memory.
The fully immersive environment leads the visitor on a journey aboard an ideal train: it begins in a nineteenth-century carriage, reconstructed with philological rigor in its shape and materials, the design of the furnishings, the quality of the surfaces, and the light temperatures, based on iconographic sources, technical manuals, and archival documentation. It then proceeds, through compartments from subsequent periods, to a train of the future, projected towards innovation and sustainability. During the journey, the Italian landscape visible through the windows is transformed—countryside, cities, stations, bridges, and tunnels scroll by like a long visual ribbon—while sounds and voices accompany the journey, calibrated to reproduce timbres, rhythms, and acoustic signals consistent with the different eras.
Just a few tens of meters from Vittoriano, the Giardino Grande of Palazzo Venezia hosts two monumental reproductions, scaled at 1:20 and 1:16 respectively, of celebrated Italian electric trains produced by the Breda workshops in Milan in the post-World War II period. In the first model, one can easily recognize the ETR 300 "Settebello", conceived in 1948 and entering service in 1952 along the Milan-Rome-Naples backbone.
The "Settebello," consisting of seven carriages and measuring 160 meters in length, reached 180 km/h and, thanks also to the meticulous interior design by Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti, established itself as an icon of Italian luxury, comfort, and design. The second exhibit is modeled after the ETR 250 "Arlecchino". Also designed as a luxury train, the "Arlecchino" emerged as a natural evolution of the "Settebello": its entry into service dates back to July 23, 1960, coinciding with the Rome Olympics. The two models, loaned by Fondazione FS - Museo Nazionale di Pietrarsa, reproduce the originals down to the finest details. Their presence in the evocative setting of Palazzo Venezia helps to restore an aesthetic value to engineering and cultural history, enriching the exhibition on both a technical and educational level.