What to do and see in Padua, Veneto: The Best Museums

Esapolis is the first major museum in Italy, which offers the world of small animals, mostly arthropods and especially insects. It is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the Province of Padua and MicroMegaMondo Butterfly Arc. The visitor is projected in a world of small beings that represents the largest animal biomass of the planet. It offers a course in which the visitor is not a mere observer of the elements, but the actor interactions more or less direct. In addition to the permanent exhibitions, there are temporary exhibitions. Esapolis will capture through continuous stimulation of the senses and mind. In the 2500 square meters of exhibition Esapolis meet countless species of live insects and important preserved collections, there are also exposed other small creatures like reptiles, amphibians, fishes, spiders, and other animals from all over the planet. Among them are also those useful to man as bees and silkworms, or the strangest predatory insects, social species, insects jewel and evolutionary paths. Technological structures make you enter the world of insects that can turn visitors into one insect-human.You can have fun interacting with the 4D cinema or interact with multimedia workstations for an unforgettable visit. On holidays, you can take part in interactive workshops. Open from April to June and from August to September, Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 to 12:00 and 14:30 to 17:30; Saturday, Sunday and holiday’s 9:30 to 17:30 lunch break. Except for groups by appointment, the museum is closed on Mondays and from October to March and July open only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 9.30 to 17.30. There are special openings during the holiday season. Esapolis has various services to facilitate your visit: easy access for the disabled, parking, picnic area, covered snack area, bathrooms and a well-stocked shop for your memories.

The PRECINEMA Museum - Minici Zotti Collection, also known as the Museum of the Magic Lantern, opened its doors in 1998. The PRECINEMA Museum holds a number of records, being not merely the only one of its kind in Italy expressly dedicated to Precinema history, but alsoreceiving a “Declaration of Local Interest” from the Veneto Region.The Museum displays exhibits including optical views, the “new world”, and a varied collection of optical instruments which, during the 19th century,but particularly during Victorian times, borewitness to the path that led to the birth of theCINEMA in 1895. Alongside simple toys, like thethaumatrope or the anamorphose we find morecomplex instruments including the phenakistoscope,praxinoscope and zoetrope, optical toys that createdthe illusion of movement.

A thousand years of history and 250 years of astronomy at the Specola: born as medieval tower, in 1767 it was transformed in Astronomical Observatory. The Observatory is one of the main structures of INAF - National Institute for Astrophysics now, and in its museum you can see rooms and instruments used by the past-centuries astronomers