By means of a “guide”, it was not an easy task to let the public know a Museum such as Piadena Museum, as it is so rich in potential contents ranging from Prehistory to barbarian invasions.

First of all, it became necessary to drastically select among such contents and to choose the objects to describe among the 3564 items displayed inside the Museum: saying everything about every matter is not only impossible but also useless and misleading.

Another choice was necessary among the various types of visitors to identify which category was the most directly interested in this kind of local museology and to elect it as the preferential addressee of the subject of this guide: it is also impossible and often deceiving to discuss something scientifically valid in a way which has to be adequate to everyone.

In the end, the most difficult problem, which has always troubled museology  especially when tackling such space limited themes as in this case: how much the basic knowledge has to be taken for granted in a visitor, considering that without its support, he can not really understand the specific meaning resulting from the objects displayed in the museum?

We tried to overcome the first problem choosing a restricted number of pieces and settlements  among the most important ones; we focused our attention on them in order to produce a logic, regular and quite continuous relation of the events which have followed one upon the other around Piadena.

Both for the objects and the settlements, we worked out some informative cards where we deliberately avoided describing the morphological features of the objects but we preferred to consider their cultural meaning.

We chose tone and language taking into account compulsory education students who are among the most constant users of the Museum.

The cards are brief and essential, easily readable standing in front of a window during the visit; in the guide, they represent the first reading level of the Museum.

The second and more complete reading level is provided by the general and historical news, more suitable for being read on the paper or before a visit to the  Museum to get ready to it; or just afterwards, to reflect upon.

We organised the guide according to a chronological principle, the only possible way to offer an orderly sequence of the events, from the point of view of time and history. Such criterion also reflects the current arrangement of the Museum itself.

To stress, also visually, these chronological groups, we used some strips of different colours; this is to constantly remind the visitor of the historical periods the news he is reading refer to.

Therefore the final result is not a complete catalogue of Piadena Museum but a real “guide” accompanying the visitor during an ideal journey through the archaeological events occurred around Piadena, from the oldest settlements to the barbaric age.

Just a personal consideration to conclude. I personally contributed to write this book as President of the Italian Institute for Experimental Archaeology, strongly believing in the need for a strict and continuous experimentation in museology, that is the context in which a museum guide is placed.

I found a complete harmony of purposes among the authors, the publisher, the clients and the whole staff.  For this reason we concentrated each effort on the search for a new and more direct way to communicate with visitors, for whom this guide is intended.

I hope they will enjoy our work and find it useful.

Santo Tinè