New York’s Ellis Island Museum pays tribute to the millions of emigrants who sailed into New York harbor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in search of a better life. The largest group of soon-to-be expats came from Italy; their exodus created one the greatest diasporas in human history.

A recently opened museum in Genoa, MEI (the National Museum of Italian Emigration), now serves as a spiritual cousin to the Ellis Island site by looking at expatriation from the perspective of departure. MEI provides a compelling overview of the Italian peninsula’s migration history, not only during the peak years of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also from prehistoric times to the present.