Museo dei Mezzi di Comunicazione

The MUMEC Museum of Communication Media in Arezzo traces the history of communication through a collection of around two thousand machines, instruments and devices. Housed in the historic Palazzo Comunale, it covers technologies from precinema to cinema, sound reproduction, telegraphy, writing and calculation, radio, television, computers and mobile phones.

Why it matters

The museum opened to visitors in December 2005, growing from an exhibition on the first forty years of radio, “Il Mondo in Casa,” organized by the Municipality of Arezzo with the Museo Galileo, then Florence’s Museum of the History of Science. Professor Fausto Casi contributed his collection, which became the core of MUMEC’s holdings. In 2018, the Tuscany Region recognized the museum as one of regional importance.

What to notice

The collection follows three broad themes—sound, writing and image—and moves from precinema devices to cameras and projectors, sound-reproduction instruments, telegraphy, writing and calculating machines, and modern communication technologies. Together, the objects show how successive inventions changed the ways people record, transmit and receive information.

Context and history

MUMEC’s collection has expanded from Casi’s contribution to encompass around two thousand objects. Its place within the Palazzo Comunale connects the history of communication to Arezzo’s civic setting.