Growing up with my half-Italian family in a Manhattan suburb, I always dreamed of going to Italy.
17.04.2024 - 13:37 / forbes.com
The dramatic underground bomb shelters of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini have been renovated and are now open to the public. The network of fortified bunkers was constructed over 80 years ago to protect him and his family from Allied bombing.
Located beneath Mussolini’s grand estate, Villa Torlonia, in Rome, he built three underground structures. The first was in 1940 in his wine cellar under the Villas Lake and then inside the basement of the Casino Nobile, one of the buildings on his property. They were heavily constructed with four feet of reinforced concrete, including anti-gas doors and an air purification system.
Mussolini added an armored bunker 20 feet underground in front of the Casino Nobile as the war continued. The bunkers were built in a cross shape with 50-foot-long corridors and 13-foot reinforced concrete. Construction started in December 1942, and the bunker was unfinished—lacking watertight doors, a final ventilation system, and a toilet—when the dictator was arrested on July 25, 1943.
The bunker site now features an audio-visual display of archive images of Mussolini and his family in the villa, as well as footage of the aftermath of Allied bombings in Rome.
Tourists can visit the bunkers with simulated overhead bombings in an immersive experience as 51 aerial bombings hit Rome between July 1943 and May 1944.
The 'Rifugio e il Bunker' is included in the Villa Torlonia Museum tour and is open for guided tours for individuals with English tours on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available online via the Museo Villa Torlonia website or in person at the ticket offices in Casino Nobile.
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