Florence’s science museum, located near the Uffizi, reopened
this week after a two-year restoration Now called “Museo
Galileo” after the great scientist, the museum features super-
technological display-cases, and visitors can use interactive
video-guides to explore their contents. The new name emphasizes
the central role of the Galilean heritage in the Florentine
institution’s activities and cultural profile. The museum is
home to the only surviving instruments designed and built by
Galileo himself. The most important are two original telescopes
and the objective lens of the telescope with which Galileo
discovered Jupiter’s moons. More generally, the Museum is the
repository for the priceless scientific collections of the two
dynasties that once ruled Florence: the Medici and the House of
Lorraine. On the occasion of its reopening, the Museo Galileo is
exhibiting for the first time relics of the great scientist (two
fingers and a tooth), deemed lost for over a century and only
recently found again due to a st