Pietro Conti” Regional Museum of Emigration
Research Centre on Italian Emigration

The “Pietro Conti” Regional Museum of Emigration in Gualdo Tadino was founded in 2003 to preserve and promote the memory of millions of Italians who, since the late nineteenth century, left in search of a better future.
Named for Pietro Conti, the first President of the Umbria region, the museum is dedicated to the human, cultural, and historical heritage of the great migratory exodus that has involved over 27 million people.

Gualdo Tadino, together with other towns along the Apennine ridge, played a leading role in this history: in fact, within just a few decades, Umbria transformed from a marginal area into one of the Italian regions with the highest emigration rates at the start of the twentieth century.

Housed in the historic Palazzo del Podestà and Civic Tower (12th century), the museum offers an immersive multimedia journey retracing the timeline of emigration, structured in three phases: arrival, journey, and departure.

Through evocative video projections and interactive installations, visitors are engaged in an experience that recaptures the human and collective dimension of migration. Documents, photos, films, letters, and period artefacts tell of the emotions and difficulties faced by millions of migrants: the farewell to home, encounters with new worlds, labour challenges, nostalgia, and hope.

The first section, “Arrival”, focuses on life in destination countries: community formation, religious traditions, food, solidarity, and social integration.
The second section is dedicated to “The Journey”: ocean crossings, cardboard suitcases, archival images of overcrowded ships and the voices of those who made the crossing.
The third module, “Departure”, explores the reasons millions of Italians left: poverty, agricultural crises, the desire for redemption, along with the risk and distance.