Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia (Allied Landings Museum), Catania (must see)

East of where the Simeto Street and SS114 Orientale Sicula intersect, close to the shore, is the Allied Landings Museum. If you are with a guide the guide will inform you about everything concerning World War II in Sicily, especially the allied landings in 1943.

The guided tour would involve a visit to the baroque Biscari Palace. In 1943 the Palace was the headquarters of British General Sir Bernard Montgomery.

A Guide at the museum briefs you on events leading up to the landings and what's to come on the tour. The first exhibit is a very realistic mock-up of a Sicilian square. You are then ushered into an "air raid" shelter. The effects of the "raid" are quite convincing. When you return to the square, you find the buildings destroyed.

The museum has three floors occupying over 11,000 square feet of space. There's a lot to see and a lot of room to see it in. There are newspapers, posters and propaganda of the day. There is a mock-up of a street, rooms with reports and maps tracking the progress of the campaigns.

There are hospital tents, bunkers, arms and uniforms. There are even wax exhibits of Churchill, Roosevelt, Mussolini, Hitler and King Vittorio Emanule.

The last exhibit is an electronic memorial plaque listing all the allied personnel who lost their lives in the effort to liberate Sicily.