From the entrance hall, a stairway leads to the first floor, where you can find an exhibition, presented by Elsa Fubini, who collaborated with Caprioglio for the Einaudi publication of the “Letters from Prison”. The exhibition, made up of images, photographs, articles, certificates, personal objects, represents the most significant moments of Gramsci’s life.
Gramsci’s adolescent years in Ghilarza, those characterized by his political militancy, then his sentencing, his imprisonment and subsequent death (there is even his funeral mask) , are all represented in the room opposite the stairs. In a showcase on the right, there are two stone spheres, modelled by Gramsci himself, whit his brother’s help. They were put on the ends of the weight-lifting rod, with which he tried he tried to build up his arm muscles.

Evidence of his attitude to practical activities, as appears several times in his “Letters from Prison”, can also be found in another showcase at the entrance of the house. Here there is an exact reproduction of a typical Sardinian cart, that was still in use at Gramsci’s day, and was built for Giulia Schucht during his stay at the Sieriebriani bor sanitorium at Moscow in 1922. It was donated to the Gramsci Museum years later by their son, Giuliano.

Some letters to his family demonstrate how much he was tied to his native land and to the town where he grew up. They show his concern about the Sardinian society and its problems regarding poverty and the backwardness of the island.

The collection of documents, articles, letters and images, also gives evidence of his move from Sardinia to Turin and of his commitment as a political leader. The small room above the entrance is entirely dedicated to the period of the imprisonment and death.

On a wall there’s a large reproduction of his cell on the special penitentiary of Turi, where he was held from19/07/28 to 19/11/33. Here, a part of a letter to his mother, dated 29/02/32 talks about his imprisonment and despite the suffering, shows the irony that he has inherited from her:

“Dear mother... please thanks Teresina and her children for their intention to send me Chenale’s violets and wild cyclamen bulbs. Unfortunately I can’t accept their gift, it would go against the rules that prison life must be an affliction. So I have to be afflicted and therefore can’t have violets and cyclamens, no little nature’s devil must stimulate my nostrils with fragrances or my eyes with the colours of flowers ...”
In a showcase there is a collection of letters, books, toys, photographs, articles, certificates and personal effects that Gramsci used when he was in prison. Beside this, there is a plaque bearing the famous and dreadful words of the public prosecutor Isgrò’s final speech at the trial held at the Special State Tribunal, 28/05/1928: “… for twenty years we must prevent this brain from working”. In the same room there is a precious collection of oral testimonies of antifascists who knew Gramsci personally and shared with him the experiences of politics and imprisonment. It is a careful work of research made by Gramsci’s nephew, Mimma Paulesu Quercioli in the seventies, in order to show Gramsci through the narrations of people who knew him at work, in political fight, in human relationships.
In the collection there are the voices of Pertini, Terracini, Longo, Silone, L.Basso, which make this corner of the exhibition a place of precious memories for all visitors.