Galata Maritime Museum

Tickets and prices

You can buy tickets online on the official website or at the ticket office at the entrance. On the official site the Open Pass, valid for six months, is priced as follows and includes the museum and the submarine:

A ticket for a chosen date may be priced differently, so check the price shown when you buy. If you are visiting several museums in the city, the Genova Museum Card for the municipal museums costs €24 for 24 hours; the Galata appears on the Genoa museums website, but check the conditions before you buy it.

If you want the submarine’s Web App, ask for it at the ticket office and pay €1 extra on top of your ticket.

Opening hours

Hours change with the season and the ticket office closes an hour before the museum. These are the hours in the official calendar:

The official calendar does not list 25 December, so expect the museum to be closed that day. Before you go, check the hours on the museum website.

What to see in the museum

The route covers four floors and tells the story of Genoa and the sea from the Middle Ages to today. The largest halls of the old arsenal hold reconstructions you can walk through: a 42-metre Genoese galley for the Age of the Oar, a brigantine for the Age of Sail and the rooms of a steamship for the Age of Steam, all with multimedia stations.

Columbus and Genoa

Highlights include Cristoforo Grassi’s View of Genoa in 1481 and the portrait of Christopher Columbus attributed to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, along with nautical charts, atlases and ship’s instruments.

Migration and the Andrea Doria

The Memory and Migration pavilion and the “Italiano anch’io” route tell the story of migration through interactive displays. “Navigare nell’Arte” shows nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings and watercolours from the Clerici Collection. The tour ends with the permanent exhibition on the Andrea Doria, the liner that sank in 1956.

The Nazario Sauro submarine

Built by Fincantieri for the Italian Navy in 1976 and decommissioned in 2002, the Nazario Sauro S 518 has been open to visitors since 2010 and is the only vessel of its kind open to the public in Italy. It is 63.8 metres long and had a crew of 49. You visit it in the dock in front of the museum, with sound effects that simulate the submarine in service.

Before you board you can follow the training of the Submariners’ School on the fourth floor of the museum.

Tips for your visit

• When to go: in winter check for Monday closures. Weekends and bank holiday weekends are busier.
• Cloakroom: it is supervised and free; lockers are also available on request, with the key collected at the ticket office.
• Food and drink: not allowed inside the museum. Smoking is not allowed.
• Animals: not allowed, except guide dogs, pet therapy animals with a certificate and small animals in a carrier.
• With children: the €42 family ticket is good value with one child; each additional child costs €5.
• Accessibility: ramps and lifts, three tactile stations, nursery facilities in all toilets and a feeding area on floor 2. Some multimedia stations have loud audio, which may bother sensitive visitors.

How to get there

By train: from Genova Piazza Principe station it is about 5 minutes on foot, crossing via Gramsci. By metro, get off at Darsena. By bus, line 32 stops at Darsena.

By car: the nearest car park is about 5 minutes on foot. The Aquarium is about 12 minutes on foot and the old town about 7. For flights and boats from the Riviera, read our pages on Genoa airport and ferries.

What to see nearby

Close by are the Genoa Aquarium, the Biosphere and the caruggi of the old town. To stay near the port, see where to stay in Genoa.