Raccolta fermodellistica "Gioacchino Capelletti"

Gioacchino Cappelletti Miniature Trains: Rail Transport Scale Modeling Collection The Museo del Modellismo Ferroviario is in the southern outskirts of the town of Città di Castello, hosted inside Villa Cappelletti. The Villa, a recently restored 16 century noble residence, is mentioned in historical documents of the town as a property estate of Cardinal Vitelli, a powerful local prelate connected to the Florentine family of the Medici. Later on the Villa belonged to the Marquis Gioacchino Cappelletti—a descendant of Giulietta Capuleti—who had cultivated a strong passion for collecting scale modeling transportation machines since his youth. During his long life, this led him to put together a rich collection of that kind, and to donate it along with the villa to Città di Castello’s Municipality. This Museum, together with the Center for Folkloristic Heritage "Livio Dalla Ragione" is part of the Garavelle Museum Complex. The exhibition is currently held on the first floor of Villa Cappelletti, in the spacious halls, living rooms, parlors and rooms that used to be part of the residence of the Cappelletti family. The Collection, donated along with the Villa to the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation of Città di Castello in 1963, consists of more than 150 models of Train engines on a 1:20 and 1:40 scale. The eleven—still working—steam engine locomotives, the seventeen passenger coaches, the eighty-eight freight wagons together with the models of agricultural steam-machinery, models of road maintenance machines, and a diorama of an Old Train Station makes this collection one of the most important of its kind in Italy and probably in all of Europe.