For the period of Liberation Day 2026, Acquario della Memoria presents in Pisa three different walking cinema tours: in the historic city center, along the walkway of the Mura di Pisa, and within the Tenuta di Coltano.
These are immersive experiences that intertwine history, memory, and urban space, in which the city itself becomes a diffuse screen. Through wireless headphones and video projections on walls, participants walk בתוך actual itinerant films constructed from archives, testimonies, and narratives. The result is an experience that combines cinema, theatre, and cultural tourism, bringing to light the layered nature of the city and the connection between places and memory.
24 april - 9:00 PM - Mura di Pisa
“BOMBE 1943 – Rosa Ribelle – Women, War, Liberation”
A walking tour through the city, featuring nighttime film projections to relive, in a direct and immersive way, the history of the city, with a specific focus on 31 August 1943.
From the enthusiasm surrounding Italy’s entry into the war to the first air raid warnings, from shelters to the belief that “the city of the Tower” would be spared—until 1:01 PM on 31 August 1943, when in just seven minutes the city was suddenly plunged into the horrors of war.
This is a journey of projections and narratives built from archival materials, private diaries, and video testimonies. It explores Fascism in Pisa and the initial enthusiasm for war; false alarms and air raid shelters; the bombing and destruction of 31 August 1943, from the railway station to Saint-Gobain; the end of the water-based world of the navicellai; the city divided in two; and the Liberation of September 1944.
For this special tour, dedicated to female figures during the wartime period, the experience will be enriched by live readings curated by VivaVoce (Giulia Solano), drawn from the diaries of Anna Manetti and Tina Tomasi—two extraordinary private chronicles of the summer of 1944 in Pisa.
An evening cinematic tour dedicated to the bombing that struck the city on 31 August 1943.
Main themes: Fascism in Pisa and the enthusiasm for entering the war in 1940; alarms and false alarms; air defense measures and shelters; the bombs of 31 August 1943; destruction from the station to Saint-Gobain; the end of the aquatic world of the navicellai and of the “old nineteenth-century Pisa of carriages, trams, and animals”; the long year 1944, marked by Nazi-Fascist violence and culminating in the Liberation on 2 September 1944.
Produced with the support of Fondazione Pisa and Regione Toscana, in collaboration with Biblioteca Franco Serantini and MUMU.
Ticket price: €12
Route: Logge di Banchi, Corso Italia, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, Chiesa di Sant’Antonio, Ciclabile Via Bixio, Sostegno dei Navicelli, Cittadella
Duration: approximately 90 minutes
Minimum participants: 10
In case of rain, the event will be cancelled or postponed to a later date.
https://www.acquariodellamemoria.it/bombe1943/
25 April and 2 May – 9:00 PM – Mura di Pisa
“1944 PISA LIBERATED”
A nighttime visit with film projections recounting the events of the Second World War in Pisa: from the enthusiasm for entering the war, through the bombing of 31 August 1943, the German occupation, the resistance of the partisan brigade Casarosa, the city divided by the Arno front line, the cathedral filled with displaced persons, the fire at the Camposanto Monumentale, Nazi roundups, and finally 2 September 1944, when Allied forces crossed the Arno and liberated the city.
Thanks to silent headphones, participants will be immersed in a highly engaging experience, organized in collaboration with Acquario della Memoria.
Departure: 9:00 PM from the Torre Piezometrica (Porta Pacis, Polo Fibonacci)
Arrival: approximately 10:30 PM at Piazza dei Miracoli
Repeat performance: Saturday, 2 May
Tickets:
€10 full price
Free for companions of people with disabilities
€1.50 booking fee
Online booking https://ticketing.coopculture.it/event/48540B92-CE77-666D-03A4-019D058980EF or via call center (advance booking recommended, subject to availability).
Additional information:
The ticket includes access to the walls and the evening visit
Audio available in Italian only
The route will close in case of bad weather, with rescheduling
Walking distance: approximately 2 km
Accessibility:
People with disabilities may access via the elevator at the Torre Piezometrica (no elevator is available at Torre Santa Maria), subject to prior communication.
Information: +39 050 0987480 (Monday–Friday, 9 AM–1 PM) or via the Mura di Pisa app.
26 April – 6:30 PM – Coltano
“COLTANO 1945”
An itinerary tracing the history of the vast prisoner-of-war camp established between July and October 1945.
A guided daytime walk through the Coltano park, featuring immersive audio storytelling and a final projection. It recounts the story of the largest prison camp in Italy, surrounded by the peninsula’s most extensive lawless area, the Tombolo pine forest—marked by smuggling, parties, prostitution, and crime.
By October 1945, the number of prisoners reached 35,000. They included the most steadfast members of the Fascist Party of Salò. In the chaos, partisans and ordinary civilians were also detained, including Dario Fo, Walter Chiari, Raimondo Vianello, and Ezra Pound. Outside the camp, crowds of relatives—especially mothers and wives—gathered desperately searching for their loved ones.
In the surrounding pine forests, among tents and makeshift shelters of shoeshine boys (sciuscià) and deserters, prostitution spread alongside smuggling. Many impoverished women followed the Allied advance from southern Italy; others were local girls forced by hunger to accept invitations to parties in the woods.
Amid both major and minor criminal activity, a kind of infernal environment emerged in the shadow of the pine forest and the green areas between Coltano and the vast Tombolo coastal forest, stretching along the Tyrrhenian coast between Livorno and Viareggio.
Main themes: the end of the war between violence and reconciliation; the Allies and the organization of the camp; the die-hard supporters of the Republic of Salò; poetry, sports, and pastimes among prisoners; chaos, revenge, and violence; overcrowding, intense heat, humidity, insects, and “pappina” as the only food; notable detainees and the poet Ezra Pound; the desperate encampment of relatives outside; Tombolo between smuggling, sciuscià, parties, and prostitution; the departure of the Allies and Camp Darby; postwar Pisa between resentment and a desire for normality; women as the primary victims.
Departure and arrival: Villa Medicea, Pro Loco Coltano
Distance: approximately 1.5 km
Duration: approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Cost: €12
Minimum participants: 10
Reservation required by phone at 3716520416 or online at https://www.acquariodellamemoria.it/coltano-walking-cinema/.
