Gallerie d’Italia — Attraction in Milan

I'll share the confusion I experienced with visiting the Gallerie d'Italia. It was my intention to visit, and I saw the entrance across from the da Vinci memorial. But I saw the Museo del Romanticismo on Google maps and that piqued my interest. But the address is off, and I asked in 5 different businesses where it was and only one person knew. I go in and mentioned how hard it was to find and the nice lady told me that it was part of the Gallerie d'Italia, that this was it's entrance. But that's almost a block around the corner, so I was confused. We tooled through the ground floor, which is lovely and has some wonderful 19th century Romanticist paintings. I need an elevator because of my knee, but it cannot be used without an escort. We were walked through several impressive galleries to the lift, but we never found those galleries again because I walked down the stairs. And also, the Museo del Romanticismo listing on Google shows a large atrium with statuary that we also never found.

In short, I missed at least a floor of rooms, and at that point I was too muddled to ask anymore questions. While inside, I did see the entrance by the monument but that entire section was closed off. Later, just to test, we tried that entrance but were waved off.

So, what I saw was definitely worth it. But I would suggest doing a little more digging before walking blithely in as we did. (At the time, and it may change, the Google directions to the Museo del Romanticismo leads to the Fendi Casa store. It is actually across the street and down a good ways).

Nuts and bolts: easily accessed by tram and Metro, no parking, clean restrooms, elevator...

Very impressive collection of masterpieces by Boccioni and other Italian painters who left their spirit of their times illustrated in their works for the appreciation of all art lovers. The edifice itself is another equally majestic architectural masterpiece worth of appreciation by visitors alike. By serendipity, my visit coincided with the grand opening of the Damiani family of jewelers commemorating their first century in business. It featured, appropriately, 100 richly crafted precious stones representing each of their 100 years in business. I like the fact that the Damiani family has kept the enterprise within the family and that still centers the family, as the basis of society. Additionally, the Damianis have given back to Valenza by having their own school training future jewelers to keep this tradition alive with a touch of finesse all'italiana. I must also thank the wonderful staff at Gallerie d'Italia for their hospitality and welcoming attitude, which I truly appreciate. You will need at least three hours to get the most out of the permanent exhibition, plus another hour or so for the Damiani exhibition. Trust me it is worth it. Grazie e arrivederci Gallerie d'Italia, famiglia...

I was really disappointed to be honest, after reading the reviews I expected a lovely gallery. But we paid to go inside and the whole place was extremely dark which made it very difficult to see the paintings. I didn't receive a map so wasn't sure how to navigate the place and we circled the same area three times before having to ask three separate workers how to get to the next section, it was hidden inside the modern art area. When we entered one of the areas we heard an alarm like noise but weren't sure what triggered it, then a worker blatantly followed us around the empty gallery for the entire time we were inside this section which was really disconcerting and made us very uncomfortable. If we had accidentally triggered some alarm they could have said something rather than shadow the only visitors inside the place as it was extremely obvious, just felt very unwelcome. We left after a short visit because of this and I don't think we saw everything as it wasn't clear how to get to certain areas and some were closed off. It was strange it was so empty on a weekend, and we visited at about 6, so still over an hour before closing. Wouldn't go back and left feeling really...