National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci

The National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci reopened on July 2nd, 2020 with the following opening hours: Thursday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Inaugurated in Milan on February 15th, 1953, the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci is the largest scientific and technological museum in Italy and one of the four major institutions in Europe.

Housed in the evocative spaces of a sixteenth-century Olivetan monastery, near the church of San Vittore, the museum is a complex of various historic edifices and modern buildings built in the 1950s. A huge 2,000m2 metal hangar houses the museum's major collection of railway vehicles, while a pavilion built in the ‘70s exhibits collections dedicated to maritime and air transport.

The collections also include exceptional large-scale objects including an example of technology in its purest form such as the Luna Rossa catamaran, a complete 19th century thermoelectric power plant and the command bridge with original equipment of the Conte Biancamano ocean liner.

However, the true showpiece is the Enrico Toti Submarine (admission ticket required) where visitors can experience the thrill of a guided tour deep inside the most iconic submarine in history!

A permanent exhibition is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous "machines", conceived during the fifteenth century. The largest of its kind in the world, the exhibition displays 130 full-scale models and reconstructions of Leonardo's engineering inventions and experimental projects, elaborated from his original drawings.

The Museum of Science and Technology in Milan has a packed programme of events and activities: guided tours, temporary exhibitions, special events, conferences, seminars, film screenings, live performances, workshops, summer campuses, educational programmes for children and much more. Check out the calendar on the official website to stay up to date!

SUPER SCIENCE FACTS

The museum also has an immense library with 40,000 volumes, an impressive archive, plus, an excellent research laboratory.

You might be interested to know that you can also find what is believed to be the first ever desk-top computer in history, the revolutionary Olivetti Programma 101 calculator.

Last, but definitely not least, you can fly to another planet in the museum’s Space area!

Be astounded by a small rock with an immense value which is the only fragment of the Moon on display in an Italian museum.