Tourist data from the long holiday periods from Easter on April 20 until May 3 confirm and strengthen the fact that the Byron and Risorgimento Museums have become the major cultural attractions and novelties in Ravenna. During these two weeks of holidays, they set a spectacular record in visitor numbers, while also achieving new international success at media level.
The Museums of Palazzo Guiccioli have been a favourite destination for tourists from all over the world—both Italian and foreign, English-speaking and others. Visitor numbers are very high despite the absence, during this period, of numerous school groups, whose educational programming includes the Risorgimento and Byron’s literary career, and who had been present in the previous weeks and throughout May.
During these days, the Byron and Risorgimento Museums hosted 1,605 visitors, with a record day on April 25, registering as many as 190 tickets sold. Interestingly, tourists mostly come from all the regions of Italy, but with significant percentages of foreigners, led by England and France. Visitors are especially captivated by Byron’s first editions and the personal belongings of Byron and Teresa, as well as the cutting-edge digital narratives that prove universally fascinating, particularly for younger visitors, owing to their extraordinary emotional impact.
In the Risorgimento Museum, the spotlight is on the Garibaldi relics and the Spadolini and Craxi collections. Many tourists stop at the bookshop on their way out to express their appreciation of the cultural enrichment and historical depth the Risorgimento Museum offers its visitors, with its wealth of details and insights on the great protagonists of Italian history, brought to life and enhanced by the vividness of the artifacts and multimedia narratives, which complement what has been studied and read in books.
While visitors from all over the world come to Italy for Byron and the Risorgimento, the Museums themselves are making their way around the globe through the international media—from Britain, the poet’s homeland, to Argentina, romantically linked to Italy and Garibaldi, as well as Byron and his poetry. The magazine Italia!, a widely distributed print publication dedicated to iconic global tourist spots, features a fine article on the recommended destination of the month: the “A Romantic in Ravenna” tour of the Museums and their wonderful stories, with photos of the sumptuous entrance hall of Palazzo Guiccioli and its fascinating rooms. BBI “Bewitched by Italy,” an online tourism magazine owned and directed by Karen Warren, covers Lord Byron and the Museum extensively, openly expressing its eclectic owner’s preference for Italy and Ravenna. But Byron is not only loved in the English-speaking world: the Argentine La Velez dedicates a wide-ranging report to the Byron Museum, reconstructing its importance as a natural literary and historical continuation of the Dante Museum.
Such great international media visibility, also connected to the very recent visit of the British Royals to the Byron Museum, has shone a global spotlight on the Museums conceived by the President of Cassa di Ravenna Antonio Patuelli and realized by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, chaired first by Lanfranco Gualtieri and Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri and now by Mirella Falconi Mazzotti.
Unexpected international events at the Museum are expected to resume soon, as on May 18 the echo of the English and American languages will once again fill the elegant halls of the Byron and Risorgimento Museums.
Ravenna, May 6, 2025
