What to expect
Never mind the doge: insatiable curiosity rules Venice, and inside its Natural History Museum it runs wild. Visit the Fondaco dei Turchi, the building hosting the museum, reflecting its history as a noble palace until the Dukes of Ferrara were elbowed aside in 1621 to make room for Venice's most important and controversial trading partner: Turkey. Admire the stars of the museum are the spotlit dinosaurs, including a terrifying ouransaurus from the Sahara and a Ptissacosaurus mongoliensis, a 120 million years old baby dinosaur skeleton from Gobi desert. Follow the tracks of Venetian explorers when adventurers like Marco Polo fetched peculiar specimen from distant lands. Around every turn scientific marvels await discovery in luminous new exhibits, such as the 19th century Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities) and a bubbling fish tank that represent the whole fragile ecosystem we live in.
