Look, it's a cool museum. Go check it out if you're in Parma. The library and theatre alone are worth it.

However, we had a very strange visit. We came on a free Sunday so I can't complain too much but we were chastised by staff multiple times for things like: One staff member told my friend it was ok to take her backpack in if she wore it on her front, then another staff member chastised her for not checking the bag. While she checked the bag, I was chastised for sitting on steps outside the entrance (there was no signage advising not to do this). We were chastised multiple times for walking through the rooms in the wrong direction (there was virtually no wayfinding throughout the whole museum, very odd for a building that has clearly been recently renovated, and it was not busy so walking in any direction wouldn't have caused any problems for anyone). When watching a show in the theatre, my pregnant friend who was starting to feel a bit tired from all our walking in the wrong direction trying to find our way so she sat on the floor and was chastised for doing so - apparently the reason is that if one person sits on the floor everyone will, although literally not a single other person (out of the maybe 20 people floating around the cavernous theatre) had sat down on the floor.

I think if the staff had seemed helpful it wouldn't have been so bad but they all seemed very angry and impatient and if you care so much about people walking in a particular direction you could just put up some signs instead of blowing a fuse.

This is about the 15th museum I've visited on this trip and never have I experienced anything like this. Is this a bizarrely long rant? Perhaps. At least it gave my friend and I something to laugh about for the rest of the day.