The submarine Enrico Toti displayed outdoors at dusk, its grey hull lit by blue floodlights and its golden propeller glowing at right, with a few visitors at left.

Milan · Via San Vittore · Leonardo, space, ships and trains

Science and Technology Museum: tickets, hours and highlights

A former monastery with the Leonardo da Vinci galleries, a full-size model of the Vega launcher, parts of an ocean liner, locomotives and a submarine you can board. Opening hours, the weekend rule and how to get there.

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Today

Opening hours for every month are on the Opening hours page.

Checked against the official website on 24 October 2026 · Official source

In short

The Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci has a reduced rate for ages 3 to 26, over 75 and groups of 10 or more, and free entry under 3, as of 24 October 2026. Boarding the Toti submarine needs an extra ticket, on top of the museum entry.
From 15 September 2026 it is open Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 to 17:00 and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 9:30 to 18:30, with entry allowed until one hour before closing. It is closed on Mondays that are not public holidays, on 24 and 25 December and on 1 January.
The museum warns that, because of the crowds expected at weekends, entry is not guaranteed to visitors who have not bought a ticket online, where you choose the date and time. The Toti can be visited only on weekends and public holidays, and only with a reservation made online when you buy the entry ticket.
A section (Basic Chemistry) is temporarily closed and renovation works are under way, which can cause some noise in some rooms, according to the museum on 24 October 2026.
The entry ticket on this site is for a date you choose, with access to the temporary exhibition depending on availability and a voucher on your smartphone, to be exchanged at the ticket office for a paper ticket. The card does not list the Toti among what is included.

The Leonardo da Vinci galleries

The museum describes its Leonardo galleries as the largest permanent exhibition in the world dedicated to Leonardo as an engineer and a humanist. For the 2019 display it speaks of 170 historic models, works of art, old volumes and immersive installations, and there is an interactive workshop, i.lab Leonardo.

The museum itself opened in 1953 with a large exhibition on Leonardo. We cannot promise a given piece on a given day: the displays change.

Space, ships and trains

The museum says it keeps 19,000 objects, and its own guide to 20 of them is a good shortlist. It includes a 1:1 model of the first Vega launcher, about 30 m tall (first launch on 13 February 2012); a fragment of lunar rock from Apollo 17, donated in 1973; the ocean liner Conte Biancamano, launched in 1925, of which the ballroom, the bridge and some cabins are kept; the training ship Ebe (1921); and the locomotive GR 552, presented at the 1889 Paris Expo.

The same list names the Olivetti ELEA 9003 computer (1958), the Regina Margherita power station (1895) at the entrance, a telescope of Schiaparelli (1882), Enrico Forlanini’s experimental helicopter (1877), Marconi’s magnetic detector (1902), the Macchi MC 205 V aircraft (1943) and the space suits of Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano. On the museum’s map the areas are the Monumental Building, the Aeronaval, Railway and Olona pavilions and the outdoor spaces.

The Enrico Toti submarine

The submarine Enrico Toti in daylight, seen from the side with its grey hull and bronze-coloured propeller at right, on a paved courtyard with two visitors at left.

The Toti (S 506) stands in the outdoor spaces and can be seen by everyone. The museum says it was launched in 1967, was the first submarine built in Italy after the Second World War, and has been at the museum since 2005.

To go on board you need an extra ticket on top of the museum entry. It cannot be bought without a museum entry, it is only for weekends and public holidays from 15 September 2026, and booking is compulsory online when you buy the entry ticket. The museum says that bookings open in the last week of each month for the following month. It is for ages 6 and up, and children under 14 board only with an adult who holds a ticket for the visit on board. It is not suitable for wheelchair users or visitors with serious mobility problems.

A monastery that became a museum

The cloister of the science museum: a cream-coloured building with an arcade lit by warm light on the left, and a bell tower and a domed drum rising behind the roofs under a cloudy sky.

According to Italian Wikipedia, the museum stands in a Benedictine cloister that became an Olivetan monastery in the 16th century, next to the church of San Vittore al Corpo; the Olivetan monks took over the complex in 1507. From 1805 it was a military hospital and then a barracks, and it was badly damaged by the bombing of August 1943.

The architect Piero Portaluppi converted it between 1947 and 1953. The museum was inaugurated on 15 February 1953 and became a private-law foundation in 1999, says the museum.

Weekends and queues

The white facade of the science museum entrance, with a loggia of arches at ground level and a long line of visitors waiting outside under an overcast sky.

At weekends the museum advises buying your ticket online with a date and time, and warns that entry is not guaranteed without it. It also says that on weekdays the quietest moment is the afternoon, especially during the school year, and that at weekends it recommends Saturday morning. Queues can form at the entrance.

Large luggage and scooters are not allowed in the museum; there are lockers at the entrance.

Visitor guide

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