Members of the Italian Embassy Examine the Italian Audio Guide of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

On the morning of 22 January, the Ambassador of the Italian Republic to Latvia, Alessandro Monti, visited the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia together with staff members of the Italian Embassy. The purpose of the visit was to review the Italian audio guide, which was translated and gifted to the museum by the Italian Embassy last year.

Ambassador Alessandro Monti emphasised that the Italian Embassy had decided to support the translation of the audio guide in recognition of the museum’s narrative and scholarly approach to shaping the exhibition content. The museum’s director, Solvita Vība, welcomed the guests and emphasised that the Italian Embassy had been the first to support the translation of the audio guides. This had encouraged other countries’ embassies to get involved in supporting the museum’s work. The example has already been followed by the embassies of Spain, Poland, and France, as well as by the French Institute in Latvia.

The Italian-language audio guides were prepared in the summer of 2025, when the exhibition texts were translated from Latvian and English by the Italian Embassy’s volunteer staff member, Ilaria Da Rin Bettina. During the visit, she listened for the first time to the texts she had translated and recorded. She acknowledged that the task also involved emotional moments, especially when recording the narration and recounting people’s fates during Latvia’s period of occupation.

Over the course of six months, the Italian-language audio guide has already been used by 451 museum visitors. The museum has received many positive reviews regarding both the quality of the Italian translation and the opportunity it provides to explore the history of Latvia’s occupation at one’s own pace in a comfortable setting.

After the audio guide tour, Ambassador Alessandro Monti noted that the exhibition helped him to gain a better understanding of historical aspects that had previously been less well known to him and other Western Europeans. The Ambassador wished the museum success in continuing to present Latvia’s history within a broader European historical and contemporary geopolitical context.

The Latvian Occupation Museum would like to thank the Italian Embassy in Latvia for their successful cooperation and the support provided.

Audio Guide Availability at the Museum

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia currently offers audio guides in Latvian, English, German, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Italian, and Russian. The museum’s exhibition can be visited with an audio guide in approximately 1–1.5 hours. The price of an audio guide is EUR 4.00 per person. In addition, the museum offers free video guides for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors in International Sign Language and Latvian Sign Language.