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Museo Nicolis
At Villafranca, Verona, 9,7 miles from HPG
The automobile, technology and mechanics museum;
one of the most popular museums in Italy and the whole of Europe.
The winning aspects of this "Anti-Museum" are culture, fun, events and experimentation
At the Nicolis Museum in Villafranca (VR) you can find the surprising means of transport used over the last two centuries, the “Ideas Space”, which is open for exhibitions and business events, educational visits for students, a cutting-edge Conference Centre and an extremely rich Research Centre.
The “NICOLIS MUSEUM OF CARS, TECHNOLOGY AND MECHANICS" in Villafranca, just outside Verona, is one of the most popular museums in Italy and the whole of Europe, but more importantly, it is recognised as an innovative example of a Museum-Enterprise, constantly striving for innovation, open to different forms of cultural fusion, heedful of its role as a promoter of culture, yet focused on its growth and development targets.
It is a private museum, but it has always been open to the public and offers visitors from Italy and abroad of all ages a skilful blend of culture, fun, educational visits, surprises and thrills. Founded by Luciano Nicolis, a Veronese entrepreneur who brought his passion for technology and mechanics to this ultra modern glass and steel museum (covering 6,000 m²).
The museum currently houses hundreds of fully functional vintage cars, hundreds of motorbikes and just as many bicycles, which once belonged to the great champions. There are also four hundred cameras, typewriters, musical instruments and other works of human ingenuity.
The historical archive and library are packed with documents and records that would suffice to satisfy the most demanding researcher and provide accounts of the evolution of society itself and contemporary man through the history of transport.
The automobile is the undisputed star of the Nicolis Museum. This is because it has always been one of the great passions of the founder, who seeks out vintage cars all over the world, often reduced to scrap and then restores them, returning them to their former splendour and “giving back” a piece of the heritage and culture of car history.
Some of the most important exhibits that you can find at the Nicolis Museum include the "Pia Engine", the first petrol engine, patented by Enrico Bernardi from Verona in 1882, the legendary 1929 Isotta Fraschini (Sunset Boulevard, Tsar Alexander, Rudolph Valentino, Isadora Duncan...), the Lancia Astura Mille Miglia, the only one of its kind in the world, purpose built for Luigi Villoresi and countless other treasures on two or four wheels.
Museo Nicolis information and opening hours:
Opening hours:
The museum is open all year round from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm; closed Mondays.
Closed 1st January, Easter, 1st November and 24th /25th/31st December.
The Management reserves the right to extraordinary opening/closing as considered appropriate.
Fax 045 7979493 - Website www.museonicolis.com
