ITCorporate Museums
Corporate museums are places that house Italian ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Often unknown, they contain the history of a brand, a passion, a style.
Testaments to products Made in Italy, which are much appreciated worldwide, they are a heritage that the Province of Milan has been able to exploit by creating a network of corporate museums. So, it is worth visiting these sites to learn about the history of many everyday objects that are part of our world and our history but we are often unaware of their origin and the path that brought them to us.
In Noviglio, a town just a few kilometres south of Milan, the Kartell Museum is the guardian and narrator of one of the richest and most fascinating chapters in the history of Italian design with its collection of over 1,000 items including automotive accessories, housewares, lamps, laboratory items and furnishings.
The Lambretta is certainly a legend close the hearts of all Italians. In Rodano, the Scooter and Lambretta Museum documents the passion of Vittorio Tessera, who has collected this popular means of transport for more than 20 years. In Arese, there are both two- and four-wheeled vehicles at the Alfa Romeo Museum, which celebrates the legendary Italian automobile manufacturer. There are more than 110 cars on display that almost cover the company's entire production from 1910 to the present day. The Museum is temporarily closed for renovation.
The Campari Gallery in Sesto San Giovanni is elegant and original: its exhibits trace the history of the brand of an Italian product is that is one of the most appreciated worldwide.
Sesto is also the home of the Giovanni Sacchi Archive, inside the Museum of Industry and Labour. The archive contains a large number of artefacts and documents that are available to researchers and students. The various materials are stored in areas designed to preserve them and used in temporary theme-based exhibits.
Finally, the textile tradition of the northern Milan area finds its highest expression in the Zucchi Collection in Rescaldina. The collection's 12,000 drawings span more than three centuries, from 1785 to 1935, to document the most varied and sophisticated fashions that swept through Europe in one of the most lively and fertile periods of its culture.
Another "must see" is the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, on the first floor of the Palazzo della Triennale. Extending over about 2000 square meters, the museum contains objects from the end of World War I to the present that are displayed in exhibits that change every 18 months to narrate the history of Italian design.
Before visiting these corporate museums, we recommend that you check their hours and any restrictions by visiting their respective web sites: Some museums are also places of work and a visit to the collections often requires a simple phone call.
More specific information about museums and archives in Italy can be found at: www.museimpresa.com