The Italian landscape is world-famous. It has been described and visited in all ages. The 18th century Grand Tour became an essential destination for those seeking the best synthesis of history and natural beauty. Who does not know the extraordinary range of landscapes that make up the Italian peninsula, extending from the Alps to the center of the Mediterranean, with its hinterlands and its Rivieras? Who does not have in mind at least one of the numberless monuments encountered while traveling through Italy, a country offering a unique stratified palimpsest of testimonies from antiquity to the Middle Ages, from the Renaissance to the Baroque, from the Neoclassical age to the present day?

Equally famous are Italy’s major museums, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to the Brera Gallery in Milan; from the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, the Capodimonte in Naples and the Savoia Gallery in Turin to the Vatican Museums in Rome. Their masterpieces are an essential part of the “imaginary Museum” described by André Malraux, along with many other works of art which are preserved in churches, in palaces and in the towns and villages of the “Bel Paese”. Most works are displayed in art and archaeology museums, but also in sites and historic buildings that make Italy a great museo diffuso: an extended museum, an “open air museum”.

The Italian museum scenario is even richer than its well established image. First of all, there are the great museums born of the dynastic collections of pre-unification States (before 1861, Italy was politically divided in several independent states). Then there is the network of civic museums of large and medium-sized towns, and finally hundreds of small local museums, mostly established in the last few decades. In 2011, Italy had 4,588 museums and similar institutions, in detail 3,847 museums, 240 archaeological parks and areas, and 501 monuments and historic buildings. Nearly one out of three municipalities hosts at least one museum. Italy is a country where, as André Chastel wrote, “the collection, the building that hosts it and the town around the building are deeply intertwined: these three forms of museums are reflected in each other.” ¹

Italy’s cultural landscapes have been changing.  Although endangered by urban and industrial development, many of her celebrated landscapes have been preserved: although they have changed they have not been deprived of their ancient charm. New landscapes have also emerged, and their expressions of modernity have already become a part of history, while the very idea of landscape has changed and has extended to increasingly new territories appealing to the mind as well as to the eyes.

Inviting colleagues from all over the world to the 24th General Conference of ICOM, which will be held in Milan 3 to 9 July 2016, the Italian National Committee offers a theme dear to Italian museology: the relationship between museums and cultural landscapes.

This is a central issue for Italy, but also a strategic perspective for the museums of the third millennium around the world. This theme presents both an opportunity and a challenge for museums to revive their mission and strengthen their cultural and social role. ICOM Italy’s theme implies two essential questions. First, to what extent should museums, especially those whose collections are linked to their locations, take the role of interpretation center for the place and the community they belong to?

Secondly, how can museums disseminate the knowledge of the cultural heritage conserved both inside and outside their walls? We believe that museums should not only take all responsibility for their collections, but also for the cultural heritage around them. Thanks to the skills of their professionals, museums should become musei diffusi, extended museums and garrisons to protect the cultural heritage conserved outside their walls.

The museums have responsibilities for the cultural landscape; they should become:  

• custodians of knowledge through their collections, research and scientific activities
• protagonists of new investigations on cultural heritage and active institutions in the protection and conservation of cultural goods inside and outside their walls
• extended museums and interpretation centers of local heritage 
• centers responsible for the education to cultural heritage and landscape
• actors for the landscape protection, conservation and development, as well as for the urban and landscape planning and for the promotion of cultural tourism
• ƒƒcustodians of the historical and cultural values of the landscape nd promoters of sustainable development

1. A. Chastel, Italia museo dei musei, in I musei, TCI, Milano 1980, p.14