The Historical Museum of the Army’s Military Motorization in Rome was originally housed in extremely limited exhibition spaces. In 1991, it was moved to its current location following the restoration of pre-existing infrastructures, in an area of about 50,000 sqm, very complex, with wide avenues, extensive green areas, and “card”-structured volumes typical of the early 20th century, once used for educational activities of the Military Motorization School.
The complex contains more than three hundred units including vintage civilian and military cars and trucks, sixty tracked, armored, and protected vehicles, and sixty vintage motorcycles.
Among the six exhibition pavilions, the one dedicated to the “Gold Medal Arturo Mercanti” stands out, housing the Direction, a library-archive with data and technical sheets related to many motor vehicles entrusted to the Army from its origins to today, as well as photographic and documentary material, and a large wall map showing the dynamic maneuver carried out by General Cadorna in Trentino in 1916, characterized by the first massive use of motor transport.
In addition to some animal-drawn wagons from 1914 and 1916, the Museum features pieces of great historical value and importance, such as the Fiat 18 BL, Fiat 15 Ter, and Spa 38 trucks, as well as two light Piper aircraft L 18 and L 21 B, a Fiat 501 Torpedo, a L3 fast tank, an M 15-42 tank, and a P 40 tank, a very rare 1942 Lancia Astura Lince armored car, a Spa Dovunque 35 truck, a 1910 Fiat 513 model 4 used by Vittorio Emanuele III for movements on the WWI front, and the famous ambulance from the film “A Farewell to Arms,” a 1910 Fiat type 2.
The Cecchignola area is located on the southern outskirts of Rome, close to the Eur district where the Museum of Roman Civilization, the Palace of Labor Civilization, and the church of Saints Peter and Paul can be visited.
