The Science Museums are part of the University of Florence. I took a few wrong turns before I eventually found the courtyard that gave access to the Museums. One ticket gave access to both the Museum of Geology & Paleontology and the neighbouring Museum of Mineralogy & Lithology. In the former, I viewed fossils collected by Florentine naturalists over the centuries. There were some fine botanical specimens, all labeled, although I don’t know how the botanists could determine the species from just one petrified frond or leaflet. Large skeletons of mammoths, and other oversized, extinct animals, dominated the museum. A computer screen digitally simulated the transformations undergone by the landscape around Florence over the geological ages.
Across the courtyard, I followed signs to Mineralogy & Lithology. This Museum contains several curious meteorites, and a small number of exquisitely crafted worked-stone artifacts, but in the main consists of a comprehensive collection of mineral specimens. Many of them are extraordinarily beautiful, and among the lovelies are some of the largest crystals I have ever seen. What the museum calls the “oversized specimens” are a 380-kg amethyst quartz geode, a 135-kg smoky quartz, twin crystals of aquamarine beryl weighing 82 kg, a 151-kg topaz crystal, a 180-kg morion quartz with single crystals more than one meter long, and a tourmaline crystal weighing 150 kg.
Most visitors to Florence don't even know these Museums exist!
