Villa GriffoneVilla Griffone is an imposing seventeenth century villa atop a plateau alongside the SS 64 "Porrettana", some fifteen kilometres south of Bologna, at Pontecchio Marconi. The house was owned by Giuseppe Marconi and the family would spend their summers together at the villa. There, during the summer of 1895, Marconi carried out his first experiments in wireless telegraphy. By the beginning of 1896 Marconi was able to send messages a distance of two kilometres from Villa Griffone and he constructed an antenna mast in the grounds of the villa.
After Marconi's death in July 1937 construction began at Villa Griffone of a mausoleum, cut into the hillside. Construction started in April 1940 and was completed in July 1941. On 6th October 1941, Marconi's body was interred in the mausoleum. Today, Villa Griffone is home to the Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi and houses the Marconi Museum. Within the grounds of Villa Griffone stands a replica of Marconi's wireless antenna.