Modena's University has been collecting things for centuries. The results are kept in six separate small museums, old-fashioned and a little dusty, seldom visited and relentlessly didactic—museums that are almost museum pieces in themselves. Two of the Musei Universitari are in the main building on Via Universitá; the others are scattered around town.
A peculiar museum packed full of specimens, with thousands of skeletons, fossils and poor sad creatures in formaldehyde. It has resisted any and every urge to go interactive and high tech: it's a treat for anyone who loves old fashioned wooden cases of specimens (3300 vertebrates) with handwritten tags. They're proudest of their collections of parasites, poisonous animals and parrots.
Via Università 4; +39 059 2056561
Image by Musei Universitari