The Museo Navale (sometimes also called Museo Tecnico Navale) is in La Spezia.Before I came to Europe, a friend told me - whatever you do, don't drive in Italy. Now I know why - driving in La Spezia was a nightmare, compounded by needing to go around and around in circles for >30 mins trying to find parking - I'm not sure my cardiologist would approve of the stress levels incurred in getting to this museum!Anyway, the museum itself is on the periphery of the main naval establishment in La Spezia, but it has its own entrance. It is not a big museum, but it is very rich in physical artefacts. The main gallery is a typical naval museum - lots of models, photographs, information boards, with a primary focus on the WW1/2 period. Then there is a special Marconi gallery, containing the first wireless set that was ever sent to sea, a torpedo hall containing many torpedoes, going right back to the original Whitehead ones. A small gallery containing diving equipment, and another large hall containing a wide variety of naval guns - along with the fire control console from the battleship Vittorio Veneto. Outside there are a few larger exhibits - mainly more naval guns, but also several items salvaged from the WW2 submarine Scire - including an original of one of the Maile cannisters - and one of Vittorio Veneto's propellors. Upstairs there was a gallery containing ship figureheads, and another gallery containing photographs from the late 19th century through to today.Within the main gallery are three historic naval vessels (anyone who believes history doesn't repeat obviously hasn't gone to the Venice and La Spezia naval museums on consecutive days).1. A Maile,2. An explosive motor boat,3. A WW2 MAS boat (number unknown - at least to me).Not a naval vessel as such - but they also have the second of the two large propelled mines (for want of a better word - not exactly sure what to call it) built at the end of WW1 (the other one was the one used to sink the Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis)And finally a shot of the battleship Vittorio Veneto’s fire control systemThey didn't have a normal type of gift shop there, but there were a number (about 12) of books for sale - all fairly detailed books on the Italian Navy (and all in Italian). Signage was almost all in Italian, generally brief - and not always present - there were examples of significant exhibits that I couldn't find any label at all for.It is another good museum with a lot of very good artefacts. It could be even better if they labelled everything (and there was a carpark nearby!)
