Family Holidays: The Aquarium of Genoa

Aquarium is one of the most visited attractions in Italy. Because it is a great way to use leisure time in one exciting experience combining culture, environmental education and entertainment. In short, it is the right place for the whole family holidays, including children.

L ‘Acquario di Genova is located in the ancient port: its interior is occupied by some forty tanks, which reproduce aquatic environments of the five continents, from arctic to tropical seas, each with its own wildlife: sharks, dolphins, turtles, jellyfish, penguins, seals, manatees, and every imaginable species of fish.


Planning a visit in the right times you can watch at feeding time. Sharks, for example, eat on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at about 12.00, while dolphins, seals and penguins get fed every day several times a day, so it’s easy being in front of the tank during the session of the meal. Logically, it is forbidden to dive into the tanks with animals, but for those seeking a more direct contact there is a touch tank, where it is allowed to pet and interact with the stingrays.

The visit to the Aquarium last at least two hours, but experience does not end here. Because the ticket Aquarium Village is entitled to enter the wonderful world of “biosphere”, a giant globe floating in steel and glass, designed by Renzo Piano, which was played to the tropical ecosystem, with its extraordinary variety of plants and small animals, like butterflies, iguanas, parrots and chameleons. A veritable forest above the sea with the constant presence of biologists ready to give explanations and tell how life develops in this fascinating corner of the world.

The same ticket also includes admission to the Galata Sea Museum, retracing the history of navigation and then explore the interior of a real submarine of the Navy, the Nazario Sauro, the first ship to visit the museum in Italy in the water.

From the thrill of underwater thrill of the panoramic: climbing on the cab rotating Bigo, originally a cargo cranes become architectural icon of the old port and the Aquarium, you can admire the city of Genoa from a height of 40 meters, accompanied an audiovisual system that illustrates the most important buildings of the city.
And if your kids are not tired yet, there is the City of Children and Young People to welcome them, with a thousand games of science, they awaken the curiosity of even larger.

Along the entire route you will find toilets with changing table, wardrobe, bar, gift shop, an infirmary, the helmets and luggage storage (fee), the Aquarium was designed with no architectural barriers to allow a smooth visit to anyone, especially children in strollers as the disabled.