Taking the example of a lot of European cities, The Long Night of Museums has been organized here in Genova also. I have mostly seen privately owned museums since now, so I think it was really about time to visit other museums, too. The time to pick the visits couldn’t have been better: the entry fee into the state owned museums was completely free this night. The night of the 16->17 May was the fifth edition already of the Notte Tempo nei Musei.
We started off at around 8 o’clock in the evening to avoid most of the heat of the day. We took as starting point the museums of Strada Nuova: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Tursi. There was a prescribed route through the 3 museums, with guides at every corner to tell us where to go in the ever complicated maze of corridors, rooms and stairs.
Palazzo Rosso was full of very nice paintings, sketches of a sculptor presenting 20’th century ideas and of course the frescoes from the top floor. Palazzo Bianco was next in line with a very nice garden, again paintings and frescoes and a clothes exposition. The last palace was Palazzo Tursi presenting paintings, sculptures, a porcelain exhibition and a coin exhibition. This last exhibit was very interesting presenting coins from the 12th century also.
After the museums of Strada Nuova we went to the Royal Palace Museum (Museo di Palazzo Reale). It had a very nice garden and imposing facade, but sadly we were told at 11:15, that all tickets were out ( !?!? ) for the last entry, so we were kindly rejected from entering… So much for the nice line of kind people we have encountered till that moment…
After this all museums slowly started to close and after a nice stroll in Porto Antico we decided to head home. Other than the museums, this little night-walk provided an excellent proving ground for my camera’s night photo capabilities. I shot every picture with manual settings… but I think I still have a lot to learn: Picasa account.