Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano

In Italy (as in a lot of Europe) there is no lack of museums. In this post I would like to talk specifically about one, the Civic Museum of Natural History of Milan (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano).

The front of the Museum.

Founded in 1838, the museum has 23 exhibition rooms and is around 5500m².

Walkway to the exhibition rooms.

What can you expect to see there? There are exhibitions on the following themes:

• Mineralogy (Rooms 2 e 3);
• Palaeontology – Introduction to Palaeontology (Room 4); Besano, paleobotany and fossils of invertebrates (Room 5); Palaeontology of vertebrates (Rooms 6, 7 e 8) – here there are: Dinosaurs!
• Natural History of Man – Natural History of Man (Room 9);
• Zoology of invertebrates – inferior invertebrates, molluscs and arthropods (Room 10); Entomology (Room 11);
• Zoology of vertebrates - Exotic Fauna: Marine Ecosystems and oceanic islands (Room 12); Equatorial Forests and Tropical Rainforests (Room 14); Temperate Forests, taiga and mountains (Room 16); Arctic and Antarctic environments, marine mammals (Room 18); Savannahs, the Cerado and deserts (Rooms 19 e 20); Italian Fauna: Parks and Nature Reserves in Italy (Rooms 21, 22 e 23).

In sum, you'll mostly see animals there. Stuffed or made into statues. The whole environment created by the museum is of extreme realism, from the statue itself to its habitat. Everything is constructed in a way that it represents how the creature would have looked alive and in motion, the trees, birds which are in flight, and water with its ondulations, all in great detail.

Curiosity:

The Civic Museum of Natural History of Milan is the owner of the biggest exhibition of dioramas in the world.

No, I didn't have any idea what a diorama was either. So here goes:

"A diorama is the artistic presentation, in a very realistic way, of real life scenes, for exhibitions, with the aim of instruction or entertainment. The scene, which can be a landscape, plant, animal, historic event etc, is painted on a curved backdrop, in such a way that it simulates a real action. The background is in the dark and is illuminated in a way that it gives an illusion of depth and movement, giving a three-dimensional impression. The model is painted in such a way that it creates a false perspective, carefully modifying the scale of objects to reinforce the illusion of reality. All these techniques are ways to present a realistic view of a big scene, in a compact space. "

Source: Dear Wikipedia (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diorama_(arte))

Only the background is painted. All the rest, including the "flying" bird, is carefully assembled.

Some information about the operating hours and the admission into the Museum:

• Opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday, from 09:00AM to 5:30PM – but you can only get in before 5:00PM.
• Days when it's not open: Mondays, 1st of January, 1st of May and 25th December.

Entrance fee:

• Ticket – 3. 00 euros;
• Anual Pass – 15. 00 euros;

Reduced rate (available for city officials of Milan, university students and adults over the age of 65):

• Ticket – 1. 50 euros;
• Anual Pass – 7. 50 euros;

Free entrance:

• Fridays after 14:00;
• Every day at the last hour;

Free entrance all the time for the following people:

• Under 18s and students of secondary school;
• Teachers accompanying students;
• Tourist Guides and interpreters accompanying groups;
• Disabled people;
• Visitors who have special administrative authority of the Museum;
• State workers, regional superintendents and employees of municipal museums;
• ICOM;
• People registered in known associations of the local and national market, aiming to protect and value the cultural, historic, monumental, natural and atmospheric patrimony.

After everything, is it worth a visit?

Those who I think will find the museum most interesting:

• Children – really very cool for them, including a room exclusively for small children, with kid's books about animals. When I went there there was an entire primary school in there!
• Biologists, palaeontologists or anyone else who works with nature. I imagine that, not having an understanding of the subject, for those who are interested in this, the place will be the full package;
• People with nothing to do! I don't mean it's not worth reserving a whole day to get to know the place, but don't worry if you leave Milan without having gone there.

You can get more information here:

http://www.comune.milano.it/

Cutest animal of the museum.

"The Ice Age", Maybe?

Brazil!

Beautiful!