The birthplace of controversial proto-fascist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio is small but excellently curated, with nine rooms displaying furniture, documents, photos and his death mask resting in a polished glass case. A short film (in Italian) is given as an introduction.
A larger-than-life figure, D'Annunzio (1863–1938) is sometimes seen as an Italian Nietzsche, a learned and literary man who became an ultra-nationalist during World War I with ideas that acted as a precursor to Mussolini. In 1919, D'Annunzio marched with 2500 Italian troops into the Croatian city of Fiume and briefly declared it to be an independent state with himself as Il Duce (leader).