Museum sights in Lombardy & The Lakes
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Museo Inter & Milan
Officially it’s called Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, after a Milanese champion of the 1930s and ‘40s, but to football fans it’s simply San Siro. Milan’s two football teams AC Milan and FC Internazionale (Inter) play here every weekend from October to May. The distinctive red-girdered roof and striped concrete towers were added when the stadium was renovated for the 1990 World Cup, the design also boosting its capacity to 85,700. Serie A fans head for the Museo Inter e Milan, boasting nonstop screenings of matches, memorabilia and trophies galore. Carnival-style papier-mâché dummies of two-dozen football stars (spot your favourite: Gullit, Rijkaard and Matthaus are all t…
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Casa Museo Boschi-Di Stefano
Milan’s best collection of 20th-century Italian painting is not proudly displayed in a purpose-built soaring white box. Somewhat tellingly, it’s crowded salon-style in a Piero Portaluppi-designed 1930s apartment that still has the appearance of the haute-bourgeois home it once was. It’s a heady art hit, with Boccioni’s dynamic brushstrokes propelling painting towards Futurism, the nostalgically metaphysical Campigli and De Chirico, and the restless, expressionist Informels all occupying a small space. Don’t miss the double-header of ''concetti spaziali'' (spacialist experiments) from Milan’s most important midcentury artists Fontana and Manzoni. The provocative slashed ca…
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Basilica di Sant’Andrea
The elaborate baroque cupola of Basilica di Sant’Andrea lords it over the city. Designed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1472, it safeguards a much-disputed relic: golden vessels said to hold earth soaked by the blood of Christ. Longinus, the Roman soldier who speared Christ on the cross, is said to have scooped up the earth and buried it in Mantua after leaving Palestine. Today, these containers rest beneath a marble octagon in front of the altar and are paraded around the town in a grand procession on Good Friday. There is no dispute about the tomb of Andrea Mantegna, also inside the basilica.
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Museo Teatrale alla Scala
Attending a performance here is incredible. Otherwise, you can also just peek inside as part of a visit to the in-house Museo Teatrale alla Scala, provided there are no performances or rehearsals in progress. On the museum’s ground floor is a chronologically arranged collection of opera-related items, including original advertising posters and the death mask and hand cast of Giuseppe Verdi, who premiered numerous operas here.
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Museo Civico di Storia Naturale
A life story unfolds as you follow pebble paths past bumper cars and a carousel, onward past a game of kick to kick, kissing teens, a beer kiosk, baby prams, jogging paths and shady benches. Jump in, or just stop and smell the roses. For grey days the charming Museo Civico di Storia Naturale beckons, the grand neo-Romanesque building houses dinosaurs, fossils and the largest geology collection in Europe.
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Museo Civico
Looming over the old town is the forbidding Castello Visconteo, built in 1360 for Galeazzo II Visconti. It now houses the Museo Civico. Intriguing collections include archaeological, ethnographic and art collections, plus displays on medieval Pavia, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento (the Italian reunification period) and, in the east tower, a section on Somalia (once an Italian colony).
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Artemide
Aesthetically inclined genies everywhere would like to announce that they're done with the whole brass oil-lamp schtick, and would appreciate if you'd rub on an Artemide next time you want a wish granted. Giancarlo Matteoli's 1965 blue mushroom-shaped Nesso table lamp would be ideal, and the Dalú transparent orange plastic study light shaped like hoodie sweatshirt would suit a smallish sprite.
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Museo della Città
Inside the rambling Monastero di Santa Giulia & Basilica di San Salvatore complex is the Museo della Città, where artefacts from the Roman town are on show, including some intricate mosaics. The star piece of the collection is the 8th-century Croce di Desiderio, a Lombard cross encrusted with hundreds of jewels.
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Museo Diocesano
Don't be taken in by the false modesty of these tranquil white 16th-century cloisters: Milan's archdiocese has quite a collection, and knows how to put on a show. A recent exhibit spotlighted Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna, whose views of Jesus on the cross from the feet up established him as the reigning champion of extreme perspective.
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Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica
Kids and would-be inventors will go goggle-eyed at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica. Exhibits range from models that test da Vinci’s far-fetched designs to electricity, astronomy, or clock- and guitar-making. Book ahead to tour a 1940s submarine.
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Bisazza
The first and last name in modern mosaics has opened a Milan showroom where tiny tesserae get together and stage riots of colour and pattern, then mysteriously cohere into a fluttering kelp forest, or luminous jellyfish trailing tentacles like royal trains.
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Museo Poldi-Pezzoli
Botticelli’s Madonna and Child is the star attraction at the Museo Poldi-Pezzoli. Home to Milan’s most important private collection, it also displays some superb porcelain, jewellery, tapestries, antique furniture and paintings.
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Civico Museo Archeologico
The Monastero Maggiore, a 9th-century Benedictine convent rebuilt in the 1500s, is a dramatic backdrop for the extensive collections of Roman, Greek and Etruscan artefacts housed in the Civico Museo Archeologico.
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Pinacoteca Civica Tosio-Martinengo
Pinacoteca Civica Tosio-Martinengo features works by artists of the Brescian school, as well as some by Raphael, Lorenzo Lotto and Luca Giordano. It is closed for restoration until 2011.
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Museo Bagatti Valsecchi
Though born a few centuries too late, the Bagatti Valsecchi brothers were determined to be Renaissance men, and from 1878 to 1887 built their home as a living museum of the Quattrocento.
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Museo per la Storia dell’Università di Pavia
The stately campus of the Università degli Studi di Pavia houses the small Museo per la Storia dell’Università di Pavia, with exhibits on its history.
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Museo Donizettiano
The Museo Donizettiano is an ornate hall housing the piano and manuscripts of Bergamo’s favourite musical son, Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848).
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Duomo Nuovo
The Duomo Nuovo, dating from 1604, dwarfs its ancient neighbour, the 11th-century Duomo Vecchio, but is of less interest.
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Castello Visconteo
Looming over the old town is the forbidding Castello Visconteo, built in 1360 for Galeazzo II Visconti. It now houses the Museo Civico.
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Triennale di Milano
At the Castello Sforzesco is the Triennale di Milano, with a museum dedicated to Italian design.
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Civico Museo del Risorgimento
The Civico Museo del Risorgimento is dedicated to the history of Italian unification.
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Palazzo Martinengo
The Palazzo Martinengo provides a lavish backdrop for temporary art exhibitions.
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Museo delle Armi Antiche
The Museo delle Armi Antiche has an extensive collection of vintage weaponry.
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