And as any dark tourist will admit, visiting the residences of former dictators is definitely intriguing. Lucky for us, it is now open to the public.

History of Villa Torlonia

Giovanni Torlonia had a pivotal role in creating the villa that we see today. The family had made a small fortune supplying the Papal armies during the French occupation.

This comfortable position meant that they were able to offer loans to cash-strapped Italian aristocrats.

However, Giovanni Torlonia was a banker and proved particularly astute. He would force the elite to use their properties as collateral.

The family ended up with an entire portfolio of grand residences this way, including ‘la vigna Colonna’. The aristocrats just couldn’t pay back the loans.

Now under the ownership of Giovanni, Villa Torlonia became their primary Rome residence.

Renovations were soon underway with leading architects of the day. A retinue of artists was also hired to transform the interiors. Work was commissioned from Rinaldo Rinaldi and Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen.

It was all very ostentatious. For instance, the “Egyptian Room” contained a Trompe D’oeil basalt and golden hieroglyphs with Antony and Cleopatra as the centerpiece.

There is also a grand ballroom with motifs of gods and demi-gods across the wall and ceiling.

It is no small wonder that a villa with such over the top aesthetic would later appeal to Mussolini.

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Mussolini at Villa Torlonia

Mussolini lived at Villa Torlonia between 1925 and 1943. He paid just 1 Lira per year for rent, (although the fact he merely rented and did not claim the property for himself is a surprise).

Very few changes were made to the property aboveground while he was there. This makes it even easier to imagine the tyrant dining amidst the palatial surroundings as he planned his Fascist conquest of Europe.

Underground, meanwhile, extra additions were built. In preparation for war, an air-raid shelter was in the garden of the villa.

As Europe began to tear itself apart, a larger airtight bunker was constructed under the villa itself.

This was easier for Mussolini to safely enter, and could also resist allied aerial bombardment and chemical warfare.

After Mussolini was forced to flee Rome, the villa was occupied by the Allied High Command. It was used in this way until 1947.

Villa Torlonia after the War

Post-war Italy was not kind to Villa Torlonia. With the allies gone and no one stepping in to take care of the property, it fell into disrepair.

Finally, in 1977, the Villa was bought by the Municipality of Rome. It was later opened to the public, with much of the site in a lackluster condition.

Restoration work on this fine palatial residence did not take place until the 1990s.

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Where is the Villa Torlonia Museum

• Address: Via Nomentana, 70, 00161 Roma RM, Italy
• Phone: +39 06 0608
• Tickets: €6–€9
• Website

The Museum Today

The museum contains an interesting collection of valuable artifacts that once decorated the villa and belonged to the Torlonia family.

Because of their vast wealth, Giovanni and Alessandro Torlonia were leading art collectors of the day. This included paintings, sculptures, and other works.

There are also examples of statuary from the Torlonia collection. These once stood in the villa as well as the gardens.

The villa also contains many pieces of 18th and 19th-century furniture, most of which would have been used by Mussolini when he lived there.

The Torlonia collection also includes exhibits from other properties belonging to the family.

Look out for the plaster reliefs by Antonio Canova, several pieces of classic furniture, and a rather interesting marble pediment that used to belong to a tomb on the Appian Way.

The reconstructed Bedchamber of Giovanni Torlonia (1872–1938) is another must-see exhibit. This room also contains furniture that Benito Mussolini would have used during his time at the villa.

Featured Image: Gaux / CC BY-SA

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While the North of Italy enjoyed a level of natural defense via its long mountainous border, Mussolini thought that this was not enough.

And so began a massive industrial project that saw over 1,100 miles of terrain fortified in some manner.

Tensions were rising with countries on the northern frontier, (France, Switzerland, Austria, and the former Yugoslavia), so in many ways, the defenses were seen as necessary for the safety of Italy.

The Building of the Alpine Wall

The building of the Alpine Wall began in 1931 and was originally intended to stretch from coast to coast, beginning at Ventimiglia to the west and Fiume on the Adriatic to the east.

Three types of construction constituted the build; large mountainside forts, rallying points and bunkers, and point defense fortifications.

It was also designed using a 3 zone principle. These were lines of defense with increasing distances from the frontier.

The first zone was called the “Zone of Security” and is where an initial battle with the enemy would’ve taken place.

The second was the “Zone of Resistance”, which were heavy fortifications designed to resist attack in isolation.

The third was “Zone of Alignment”. These were designed to narrow the enemy’s path into a direction and position where a counterattack could be successfully initiated.

The position of these was directly related to the nature of the terrain. The rugged nature of the Alpine frontier meant that each of the fortifications was concentrated in areas of potential weakness.

Observation posts and bunkers were also built in locations accessible for the Italian army (the Alpine Wall was defended by the by the “Guardia alla Frontiera” (GaF))

Such a grand undertaking was clearly a large economic burden. It was also built in secrecy and lasted 11 years up until 1942.

647 machine guns were eventually fitted along the stretch of fortification, with the building of 208 bunkers many filled with artillery pieces. Provisions were also made so that poison gas could be used.

Where is the Alpine Wall?

It can be difficult to pinpoint specific locations along the wall that you can visit. Your hiking ability, weather, and time of year all have a part to play in those that you might expect to reach.

That being said, one traveler-friendly way of obtaining insight is via the Bunker Museum in Dobbiaco. Here, visitors can explore the inside of an actual bunker that forms part of the Alpine Wall.

There’s also information on the building of the wall and exhibits covering the troubled history of the area during the 20th century.

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A Wall with Little Purpose

In the end, the Alpine Wall saw very little conflict during WW2. The most heated action came in 1940 during the Italian invasion of France. Troops at Fort Chaberton exchanged fire with their French counterparts. During the battle, the fort sustained some damage from French 280mm field mortars.

Towards the end of the war, some of the Alpine Wall fortifications were used defensively by the Germans.

After the war some parts of the wall were destroyed, other sections were given to Yugoslavia as a part of war retributions. With the end of the Cold War, the Alpine Wall was finally abandoned and many parts sealed up for good.

Visiting the Alpine Wall today

The Alpine Wall today is a place of exploration for the hiker or intrepid dark “military” tourist.

Clearly, there are many locations along the line of fortifications that you can visit. (In fact, far too many to list in one article).

However, what most share in common is their bleak splendor against the beautiful backdrop of the striking alpine landscape. It is that juxtaposition of Mother Earth at her most dramatic alongside man-made constructs for War that offers a sense of melancholy.

Don the hiking boots and take a walk into the wilderness. Stumbling across remnants of the Alpine Wall is definitely worth the trip.

Featured Image: Fantasy at Italian Wikipedia / CC BY-SA

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I have an insatiable wanderlust for the extraordinary. Born with an adventurous spirit, I have spent over the past decade exploring the far reaches of our planet, seeking out the strange and mysterious.

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Once only available to academics, this museum of skulls is a product of the criminal anthropologist Cesare Lombroso.

His journey into the study of skulls and their relation to criminal behavior first began in 1871.

While examining the skull of the autopsied body of Giuseppe Villela, (a particularly notorious Italian criminal of the age), Lombroso discovered a concave section at the back of the head.

He would later call this the “median occipital fossette,” an irregularity of the skull that would fuel a life long obsession into the root of the criminal mind.

Lombroso’s Theory

Many years later Lombroso would reflect upon seeing the fossette for the first time:

“The sight of that fossette suddenly appeared to me like a broad plain beneath an infinite horizon, the nature of the criminal was illuminated, he must have reproduced in our day the traits of a primitive man going back as far as the carnivores”.

Thus was born the academic theory of anthropological criminology. Lombroso believed that criminals were born that way. Their skulls were physically reminiscent of apes and lower primates, and this created a “savage” mind as a result.

Throughout his studies, Lombroso accumulated a vast collection of biological and criminological specimens.

This included hundreds of skulls from natives from the “New World” and beyond, as well those once belonging to soldiers, criminals and the insane.

He was looking for common attributes beyond the “median occipital fossette”. Lombroso posited that low sloping foreheads, high cheekbones, large chins, and flattened noses were all evidence of the “criminal” phenotype.

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Criminals are born not bred

This all led to the underlying notion that criminals were born, not bred. Now known as “biological determinism,” Lombroso’s put forward the idea that law-breakers were physically de-evolved, and were destined to become criminals as it was part of their biology.

The racial implications of all of this view cannot be understated. Lombroso’s saw a direct link with his theories and that with the evolution of black people. They were less evolved than white people.

He stated that “only we white people have reached the ultimate symmetry of bodily form.”

This, of course, was a commonly held belief at the time and Lombroso’s studies did not come across as ground-breaking in that regard.

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The Lombroso’s Museum

In 1892, Cesare Lombroso opened a museum in Turin to showcase his collection.

Academic or crackpot, his theories were given much credence at the time. The displays of skulls and skeletons along with wax models of murderers that had met their end was a popular draw for the intelligentsia.

As Lombroso once boasted:

“our school has attracted and convinced the best scientists in Europe who did not disdain to send us, as proof of their support, the most valuable documents in their collections.”

He also collected weapons that were used in crimes and other criminological relics and put those on display too.

Other exhibits that still exist within the museum to this day, include the anatomical sections of ‘madmen and criminals’ as well as artwork produced by criminals throughout the 20th Century.

The Gallows of Turin are also held within the museum (they were used for the city’s final hanging in 1865).

As a testament to the man and his collection, the last cranial exhibit to be added to the museum belonged to Cesare Lombroso himself.

Following his death in 1909, Lombroso’s head was carefully preserved and is now floating in a glass chamber in one of the rooms.

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Museum of Criminal Anthropology, Turin

• Address: Via Pietro Giuria, 15, 10126 Torino TO, Italy
• Phone: +39 011 670 8195
• Website

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I have an insatiable wanderlust for the extraordinary. Born with an adventurous spirit, I have spent over the past decade exploring the far reaches of our planet, seeking out the strange and mysterious.

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This bizarre and somewhat morbid tourist attraction contains almost 8,000 corpses, most of which are dressed as if they were attending a wedding.

Visitors descend into the catacombs and are able to get up close and personal with the long-dead cadavers hanging from walls, sitting on benches and laying in open coffins.

History of the Capuchin Catacombs

As with many catacombs across the world, the reason Capuchin started to house corpses was that the local cemetery began to run out of space.

Excavation started in the late 16th century, with the first corpse addition coming in 1599 when Silvestro of Gubbio was mummified and placed into the catacombs.

The space was originally intended for dead friars of the Capuchin monastery, however, as time went on it became rather chique to be buried there.

Money talks of course and the resident brothers saw a business opportunity. They allowed local luminaries to be buried there in exchange for generous donations in their wills.

The fashion of being preserved in your best suit had also gained popularity, with the gentry even paying for the after-death service of having their corpse clothing routinely washed. (Priests meanwhile were dressed in their clerical vestments for eternal preservation).

Relatives would be allowed to visit the deceased and would also offer donations to the monastery in order to keep the corpse in its proper place. Failure to offer money would have the body put aside and out of sight at the back of the catacombs until payments resumed.

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The embalming process

The embalming process involved washing the body in formalin to kill the bacteria. It was then rubbed in alcohol and left to dehydrate on racks of ceramic pipes.

Glycerin was used so that the flesh would not completely dry out, with salicylic acid applied to prevent decomposing fungi to take hold.

Finally, zinc salts were added to give the body rigidity forevermore.

Where is the Capuchin Catacombs

• Address: Piazza Cappuccini, 1, Palermo 90129 PA.
• Phone: +39 091 652 7389
• Website

Capuchin Catacombs Today

The most recent corpse to be added to the Capuchin Catacombs belonged to Rosalia Lombardo. This was in 1920. Rosalia was only two years old when she was embalmed, and her well-preserved body has seen her dubbed as “Sleeping Beauty.”

As I mentioned above, approximately 8,000 corpses rest within the catacombs and tourists can get within a few feet of the ones on display.

Beyond the priests and rich-folk dressed in their best, there’s a “Chapel of the Virgins” area, where girls who were virgins at death wear faded white dresses. The inscription here states: “We follow the Lamb wherever he goes; we are virgins.”

A walk through the catacombs is also an education in Palermo high fashion from the 1600s to that last inclusion in the 1920s. As each generation chose their best attire to wear in death, we see the changing styles through the ages.

However, the corpses are clearly rather intense to look at (it is not an attraction for children).

Caved-in noses adorn crumpled faces with empty eye sockets. The mouth is very often wide-open in some kind of macabre death scream, a result of decomposing facial ligaments and gravity.

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Good to know

Taking photographs inside the catacombs is prohibited. Despite how close you can get to the preserved remains, iron grills have been installed to stop meddling tourists tampering or posing with the corpses.

The Catacombs of the Capuchins are classed as religious monuments, so you should dress appropriately. The dress code means shoulders should be covered.

The catacombs are closed on Sunday afternoon from late October to late March. The entrance ticket is 3 euros.

Featured Image: Sibeaster / Public domain

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I have an insatiable wanderlust for the extraordinary. Born with an adventurous spirit, I have spent over the past decade exploring the far reaches of our planet, seeking out the strange and mysterious.

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Originally used as a fortification by the mighty Venetians, the buildings on the island were modified in the late 18th century to house plague victims.

From 1793-1814 the island acted as a quarantine station, one of many within the Venetian lagoon at the time. However, what set Poveglia apart was the number of infected souls that were said to have died there.

With reports in the region of 160,000, a dark local legend suggests that 50 percent of the soil is made up of human remains.

Use as a Quarantine Station

The island first came under the jurisdiction of the Magistrato alla Sanità (Public Health Office) in 1776, and all goods and people arriving into Venice by ship would be checked there.

When the plague arrived less than 30 years later, the island was transformed into a confinement station, the role becoming permanent under orders by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805.

As plague once again made its way through parts of Europe, the death toll on Poveglia increased into the tens of thousands. As a dumping ground for the diseased, victims would be dropped off at the island and literally left to die.

Plague ridden corpses that had died elsewhere, would also be taken to the island and dropped into mass graves before being burned.

The extent of the pain and suffering that occurred at the tiny location is hard to comprehend.

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Life as a Mental Asylum

The dark history of Poveglia island continued into the 20th century too. No longer used as a quarantine station the buildings laid abandoned for most of the 1800s.

Then, in 1922 they were converted into an asylum for the mentally ill. A rather twisted local myth has it that one of the doctors tortured and killed many of his patients on the island.

He would butcher them before adding the remains into the already bone ridden soils of Poveglia.

Later, haunted by the souls of the victims he had brutalized, the doctor threw himself off the bell tower.

To this day those that venture close to the island say that they can still hear the bells of the tower, even though they were removed many decades ago.

The asylum was closed in 1968, however, despite the buildings being converted yet another time for use as a retirement home, evidence of its life as both a quarantine station and mental asylum, still remain.

Fortified structures adorn parts of the island and sections of the asylum exist with rusting bed frames and grated bars over broken windows.

The location of the plague pits can also be found if you know where to look.

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Visiting Poveglia Island Today

As we have already mentioned, Poveglia is strictly off-limits. It is actually illegal to set foot on the island.

That doesn’t stop people visiting of course. A conversation with a water taxi driver and the right amount of Euros in your hand will get access.

Our advice would be not to stay too long, however. In 2016 five tourists from Colorado had to be rescued by firefighters after attempting to spend the night on the island.

As darkness fell they became terrified. A presence in the dark had begun to haunt them. Unable to spend a minute longer on the island, they ran down to the shore and started screaming for help.

Fortunately for them, a sailboat closeby heard their cries and notified the authorities.

Featured Image: Angelo Meneghini / CC BY 3.0

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I have an insatiable wanderlust for the extraordinary. Born with an adventurous spirit, I have spent over the past decade exploring the far reaches of our planet, seeking out the strange and mysterious.

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