Archaeological Museum of Bologna — Attraction in Bologna

A beautiful building with a respectable collection of artifacts from ancient civilizations. It has, however, varied levels of appeal to the non-Italian speaking visitor.

In the courtyard of the ground floor, the impressive lapidarium with Latin inscriptions has no explanatory text whatsoever. A pamphlet is available at the reception desk, but only in Italian.

In the Ancient Egypt room downstairs, there are detailed panels that explains the findings' periods, also only available in Italian. There's an old brochure in English that you'd have to carry around the room to get more context.

In the upper floor, the beautiful and vast collection of Neolithic, Etruscan, Greek and Roman artifacts has panels both in Italian and English, with detailed bilingual pamphlets that help us understand a bit of the history of human occupation in Bologna. The walls are exquisitely decorated with Etruscan-inspired illustrations. There were two videos, one showing a sculpting technique from the Neolithic age, and another showing the history of a hoard from an Etruscan foundry preserved through the ages and displayed at the museum. There was also a game where you can guide a character through an ancient Roman town while getting information about how it felt to live in such a place.

We were received there by a kind and enthusiastic lady who volunteered as monitor out of love for the museum's mission of spreading knowledge.

I wouldn't mind paying more for the visit if it meant all the museum spaces followed the upper floor's standard, which enhances the...

We came to visit on a Wednesday afternoon around 4pm and there wasn’t a wait. Ticket prices weren’t bad, and we were excited to visit the museum because of all the Egyptian artifacts that they have (one of the largest collections in Italy), and was impressed with the amount of items they had overall.

During our visit coincided with the heat wave in July. Considering they only had fans to keep it cool, and no AC, it was quite hot inside. We appreciated going to the ground floor for some of the Egyptian artifacts as that was the coldest area of the entire museum.

There was about 20 people in total that were there during our visit, which made this the best time to go in our opinion. They also have a very large collection of metals, plasters, and currency. While this is not as large of a museum as other places, and considerably is overlooked by most tourists and tour groups, it makes for a great place to stop in if you have the time. We enjoy the less busyness of this museum compared to other places we visited.

I wish there was an audio guide as you go along the museum, or translated signage, which would improve the understand understanding a bit more of what you’re looking at. Unlike other museums, there was no audio guide or pamphlet to articulate the...

It is very hard to asses. The museum has vast and interesting collections of artifacts, yet it feels more like a warehouse rather than museum. On one hand side, it has dozens of artifact ranging from stone age up to early medieval era. If you are really into history, you can probably spend whole day here. On the other hand, Roman, Etruscan, Greek, Celtic parts are sometimes blending together. Many artifacts or whole rooms lack English description. It's easy to get overwhelmed, as dozens and dozens of similar artifacts are stacked in one place. There is no clear visiting path No clear distinction of eras, places or context and some artifacts are cross-referenced from across the floor. Feels as if the museum courator was fetched from early XX century. Yet, in other places there are interactive items such as Celtic weapon belt. The only exception in the Egyptian section in the basement, where all artifacts have English description and are well organized into clear sections with timeline given in front. (but you still need to take English booklet because sections are described only in Italian). Still, the visit was well worth 6 euro...