Museo dell'Arte Vetraria Altarese

The museum tells the story of a glassmaking tradition in Altare that goes back to the eleventh century and led, in 1856, to the founding of the Società Artistica Vetraria, Italy's first workers' cooperative. It is housed in Villa Rosa, an elegant 1905 Art Nouveau building restored and opened to the public in 2006, where the collection displays glass works from the eighteenth century to today alongside the historic tools of the craft. Guided tours combine the story of the glassmaking technique with that of the villa's Art Nouveau architecture, while in the garden a demonstration furnace lets visitors watch glass-blowing sessions and join glass-fusing courses.