Museo Nazionale dei Trasporti — Local services in La Spezia

I visit every railway museum I can so when I stayed in La Spezia I came to see the Museo Nazionale. It is small and run by volunteers but apart from priceless historical vehicles and other stuff you can find real passion there. The guide was very kind and keen on showing us everything, he talked about every single exhibit and turned everything on. Because the signals, scale models and even signal box controls do work here. Apart from memorabilia, there are real engines inside and outside the museum building: steam class 743, 940, small diesel locomotives and especially interesting electric E626 made in 1937. Unlike big museums, you can enter every carriage here, take a seat in an old wooden 2nd class coach, take a ride on a garden railway and pose as a locomotive driver. Although it's a 'transport' museum, it is dedicated almost completely to the railway. Most exhibits are in perfect condition but there are ones awaiting restoration therefore I really recommend a visit and financial support. Reserve at least one hour and be aware that you pay at the end...

Recommending. One of the most special museum visits of last years. We were there alone, two adults and two kids. Mixed feelings. On one hand - great collection, nice people, interesting excursion with real story of each piece, most things you can touch. On another hand - very sad, everything getting aged, lack of financing left its trace, even on people. We were requested to buy "Italian style" tickets - at the end of the show, no single word about that before. And the asked price was more expensive than what was written on a ticket... Let's hope that money will help them preserving...

We have 3 small sons who love trains and this was the perfect place to visit with them. Even though there were some technical issues at the beginning, all the staff here were really kind and helpful :) They gave posters and magazines about trains to boys, they told us a lot of interesting information, boys could take 2 rides on a small railway track! I can highly recommend if the weather is not well or you just want to take a rest from the sea and other usual things to do here.

Once more, thank you very much for all the kindness. (It took us...