In a nutshell
Bologna is a good city for a science trip on foot. The university's museums – anatomy, astronomy, geology, physics, botany and the history of students themselves – sit mostly along and around Via Zamboni. A short walk away is the Archiginnasio with its anatomical theatre. Further out are the city's industrial museums, a science education centre, and, just outside town, the house where Guglielmo Marconi began his experiments with radio.
We group the places by theme. For each one we give a short description and a link to its official page, where you will find current opening hours and prices – we do not repeat them here, because they change.
Getting there
- By air: Guglielmo Marconi Airport is about 10 km from the centre. The Marconi Express monorail links it to Bologna Centrale station in about seven minutes, with an intermediate stop at Lazzaretto.
- By rail: Bologna Centrale is a major hub for regional, intercity and high-speed trains.
- By road: the city lies on the A1 motorway, with the A14 towards the Adriatic coast and the A13 towards the Veneto.
University museums
The University of Bologna Museum System (SMA) brings together 16 museums and collections. Most are in the university quarter; two veterinary collections are in Ozzano dell'Emilia, about 20 km away. These are the ones most worth a science traveller's time:
In 1711 the Bologna Senate bought the palace for Luigi Ferdinando Marsili's Institute of Sciences. Its frescoed rooms now show the historic collections of geography and navigation, military architecture, physics, natural history, chemistry, and human anatomy and obstetrics, as well as Ulisse Aldrovandi's 16th-century museum.
Map →Housed in Palazzo Poggi (Via Zamboni 33), it is described by the university as the only museum in Europe devoted to student life: some 400 objects – paintings, manuscripts, sculptures and reconstructions – covering more than eight centuries of student culture, from student confraternities to women students and activism. A fitting stop for anyone interested in the Bologna Process.
Map →The astronomical tower built between 1712 and 1726 on Marsili's initiative and opened in 1727; it was the university's only observatory until 1936. Instruments from the 13th to the 20th century over four floors, ending on a panoramic terrace.
Map →Founded in 1568 by the Bologna Senate on Ulisse Aldrovandi's proposal – the university counts it as the fourth botanical garden in the world, after Pisa, Padua and Florence. It has been on its present site near Via Irnerio since 1803.
Map →The collection of anatomical waxes, one of the 16 museums and collections of the University of Bologna Museum System.
Map →Named after Giovanni Capellini, the first holder of a chair of geology in Italy, and opened in 1881. Close to a million rocks, plants and fossils; the best-known exhibits are a Pliocene mastodon, Eocene fish from Monte Bolca, Pliocene whales and a 26-metre model of a Diplodocus.
Map →About 50,000 specimens, some 10,000 of them on display: systematic and regional mineralogy, rocks used in Bologna's buildings, meteorites and amber, plus fluorescent minerals and old optical instruments. Entry is free; the museum keeps a reduced timetable and closes in summer.
Map →Nineteenth- and twentieth-century physics instruments, including the teaching and research apparatus of Augusto Righi and Quirino Majorana, equipment from the school of radio communications linked to the work of Righi and Marconi, early computing machines, electron microscopes and cloud chambers. Open to school groups on request.
Map →Sources: [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Where the university used to teach
Until 1803 the university taught in the Archiginnasio. Its anatomical theatre is one of the best-known rooms in the city.
Built in 1562–1563 to a design by Antonio Morandi (Terribilia), the palace served the university until 1803 and has housed the library since 1838. The anatomical theatre, designed in 1637 by Antonio Paolucci ('il Levanti'), was destroyed by bombing on 29 January 1944 and rebuilt after the war with its original wooden sculptures.
Map →Industry and technology
Bologna is also a city of making things – from silk mills to packaging machines and motorcycles. Two museums tell that story.
In the former Galotti brickworks on the Navile canal, around its Hoffmann kiln. It tells the story of how Bologna made things for five centuries: silk – with a working half-scale model of a Bolognese silk mill – then mechanics, mechatronics and packaging, scientific instruments from the Aldini-Valeriani institute and, since 2019, an interactive space on today's industrial technologies.
Map →At the company's headquarters in Borgo Panigale: road and racing motorcycles and a timeline of the firm's milestones, over about 1,000 square metres. Guided factory tours include the museum; places are limited and must be booked online.
Map →Science for families and schools
Opened in 2015 by the Golinelli Foundation in a converted 9,000 m² industrial site: laboratories, classrooms, exhibition halls and an auditorium for science and art education, with exhibitions, workshops, courses and talks for all ages. Opposite stands the Centro Arti e Scienze Golinelli, opened in 2017.
Map →Sources: [16]
A day trip: Marconi's house
Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna in 1874. The city and its surroundings keep many traces of him – among them the family house where his work on radio began.
The Marconi family house at Pontecchio, in the municipality of Sasso Marconi, less than 20 km from Bologna. Here the young Guglielmo Marconi set up his first laboratory and made his first wireless telegraphy experiments. The villa houses the Marconi Museum on the origins of telecommunications, as well as a library and archive; Marconi's mausoleum is in the grounds. Weekday visits by booking only.
Map →Walking under the porticoes
The porticoes – about 62 km of them, on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2021 – make it possible to cross much of the centre under cover. See City & Region.
Sources: [19]
Sources
- Bologna Welcome – Plan your trip
- Marconi Express – How the service works
- University of Bologna Museum System (SMA) – The museums
- SMA – University of Bologna Museum System: about us (16 museums and collections)
- SMA – Museo di Palazzo Poggi
- University of Bologna – European Student Museum (MEUS) visit, Student Ambassadors
- SMA – Museo della Specola
- SMA – Orto Botanico ed Erbario
- Bologna Welcome – Geological Collection “Giovanni Capellini Museum”
- Bologna Welcome – Mineralogical Collection “Luigi Bombicci Museum”
- Bologna Welcome – Collezione di Fisica
- Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio – The palace
- Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio – The anatomical theatre
- Bologna Welcome – Museo del Patrimonio Industriale (ex fornace Galotti)
- Bologna Welcome – Museo Ducati; Ducati – Borgo Panigale Experience
- Bologna Welcome – Opificio Golinelli
- Bologna Welcome – Villa Griffone – Museo Marconi
- Bologna Welcome – Marconi itinerary in Bologna and surroundings
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre – The Porticoes of Bologna
Sources checked on 26 October 2026. Official documents are linked, not republished.