MUSEUMS
Italy’s biggest museum of natural history (which is also one of the largest ones in Europe), Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milan displays true marvels of nature. Huge shells, mollusks, dinosaurs, sea creatures as well as man our origins and evolution are all to be found in this incredible collection.
Located in the center of Milan, behind the fences of Giardini Indro Montanelli (also known as Parco di Porta Venezia), you can find it just few minutes walk from Duomo di Milano and near piazza San Babila.
Traveling through the 2 floors of the museum’s building don’t miss the couple of very special pieces. There is a pair of the world’s largest living arthropods Japanese Spider Crabs, on display since 1871, which body can reach a length of 4 meters. There is a perfectly shaped and well-preserved 100 million years old cephalopod Pseudopeltoceras from Madagascar. Impressive flying reptile Pterosaurs will amaze you with its 12 meter wing span, while the terrifying 9-meter-long Phosaur, a short-necked marine reptile, might scare you with its massive toothed jaws. Not to talk about the out-of-scale Tyrannosaurus Rex and the 214 kg Tridacna Gigas from Philippines, by far the largest of all living mollusks provided with an external shell. It is said that a counterpart of this latter one can produce a 7 kg pearls. Ready to sneak inside to see if the one in Milan has something precious inside?
