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The
genius of Leonardo
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With
a staggering half a million virtual visitors a month
Italy's most important Science and Technology Museum
is well worth a visit wherever you may be
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 The
National
Museum of Science and Technology is slap
bang in the centre of Milan, a stone's throw from
Piazza San Ambrogio. Dedicated to Leonardo da
Vinci, it
is, along with the museums in Tokyo, London,
Paris and Chicago, one of the most important Science
and Technology Museums in the world.
The museum is organised in twenty-eight sections
which are spread over an impressive 40,000 square
metres. It was founded in 1953 and allows the visitor
to travel freely through different ages and realms
of science, going from the great genius of Leonardo
da Vinci to the cyberspace
of William Gibson and beyond, as well as tracing
the history of Italy from its beginnings as a crafts-based
economy to becoming a major industrial player in
the world today. The first thing you see on entering
the museum is the Regina
Margherita, a huge thermo-electrical steam
plant built in 1895, you then pass Elea,
the first Italian computer, to arrive at a reconstruction
of the Tethered
satellite, a space dynamo tested out on the shuttle.
We continue our visit in the oldest of the museum
buildings, an ex-Olivetan
monastery, which holds one of the museum's
greatest attractions, the "Leonardo
da Vinci Gallery". More than 30 models of
machines made or drawn up by Leonardo are displayed
in the gallery. Don't miss the interactive
section (scroll for text) where visitors
can operate seven of Leonardo's inventions themselves.
 Leonardo's
marvellous machines
You can run a Quicktime
animation on all the machines in the Interactive
Lab, uncovering explanations and links to Leonardo's
original drawings.
One of our favourite machines is the beating
wing tips , the precursor of a long series
of human-powered flying machines.
We continue as far as the Rail
Transport Building where 20 steam engines
are on display inside a loving reconstruction of
a Liberty-style train station. And then quickly
on to the spectacular Air & Sea Transport Building
which holds the record for the largest ship in
an indoor museum - the schooner Ebe.
Then dedicate some time to the museum's Internet
division - which is much more than a virtual
copy of the museum. There is an entire section dedicated
to the Italian translation of a highly acclaimed
site on Cyber
geographic research. The site is full of
information, including conceptual
and artistic
representations of cyberspace as well as a series
of maps to help you visualise the 'Net.
Giuliano Gaia, co-ordinator of the museum's website,
told us that the museum was currently developing
a new version of the site to meet the demands of
their 500,000 monthly visitors, almost twice
the number of ticket-paying visitors. Before
leaving Gaia suggests we sit awhile in the peace
and shade of the museum's Cloister
before continuing our Leonardo
trail (Italian only) throughout Milan -
or for those who have joined us from afar - on the
net.
Visitors to Milan can go to the Navigli
for food and accommodation and enjoy the buzz of
Italy's business capital.
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| by
FRANCESCO
TUTINO |
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Nov.
19th, 2001
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THE SURVIVOR'S 
