The Compendio Garibaldino on Caprera, the House Where Garibaldi Lived

Giuseppe Garibaldi, the general of Italian unification, retired to Caprera and lived there for the last 26 years of his life. He did not build a palace: he built a farm. The Compendio Garibaldino is that estate, now a state museum, with the house, the buildings he raised with his own hands and his granite tomb.

What you see

The centre is the white house, built in 1856 and 1857, with seven connected rooms: atrium, three bedrooms, study, dining room and kitchen, and a room added later, the death room, where he died. Around it are the wooden house and the iron house, which holds his library, and the farm part: the oil mill, the oven, the stable and the windmill, built by Garibaldi, his son Menotti and his closest collaborators.

In the cemetery area is the general's granite tomb and those of Francesca Armosino, his last wife, and of his children. All of it lies in a large estate of Mediterranean vegetation, with views of the sea.

Hours, price and booking

It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30 to 19:30, with the ticket office open until 18:30. It is closed on Mondays. Booking is compulsory: it is done online on the ministry's website, by phone on +39 335 7505401 or by email.

Admission costs €8. The reduced price, €2, is for young people aged 18 to 25, and under-18s go in free, as in all Italian state museums. The combined ticket with the Memoriale Giuseppe Garibaldi, the other museum dedicated to him on the island, costs €13. On the first Sunday of each month state museums are free.

Getting there

Caprera is joined to La Maddalena by the paso della Moneta road. From La Maddalena harbour it is about fifteen minutes by car or scooter. If you do not bring your car across from Palau, you can hire a scooter or bike on the island.

Who it is for

For anyone curious about Italian history, and fine for families: children do not pay, the visit is short and the farm can be understood without knowing much about Garibaldi. Combine it with a Caprera cove in the afternoon or with lunch in La Maddalena's old town.