Visiting the Museum with children is a unique experience in which the family is confronted with art and learns together. Here you will find a series of advice and information that can be useful if you visit the museum on your own.
Strollers can enter the Museum: the lift allows you to reach the different floors of the building. Baby carriers and slings are also comfortable with younger children.Large bags must be left in the cloakroom lockers.The toilets are located on the ground floor, on the first floor and in the Medieval Garden and are equipped with a changing table and a riser for the sink: consult the map and ask the staff. In the halls of the Museum you can breastfeed, but you cannot consume food and drink.
Prepare the children for what they will see in the Museum: sculptures, paintings, objects of daily life, but also curious objects with unusual shapes; rooms of different shapes and sizes, frescoes and staircases of all types (from the monumental staircase to the steep and twisted spiral staircases).
Visit the Museum's website with them in order to become familiar with the objects they will find during the visit (the materials you find in the "Collections" section may be useful).
Remind your children how to get around a museum: explain that the works cannot be touched because they could get damaged. Make it clear that our hands, even when they are clean, have a natural fatty substance that can leave traces on these objects: for this reason, the people who work in the Museum always wear a nice pair of gloves when they have to touch the works. Remember that there is no running in the Museum and that you must not leave the accompanying adult.
Warn the children that in case of need they can contact the restaurant staff recognizable by the tag.
The morning is the best time to visit because the children are more rested. Be careful not to extend too much the visit: depending on the age of your children, the visit can last between 30 minutes and an hour and a half. Remember to take breaks along the way.
There are various benches in the Museum, but you can also rest on the bright North Veranda.
Leaflets with information relating to activities for the public (including workshops for families) can be found at the Ticket Office.
The new mobile APP of the Turin Museums Foundation can be downloaded free of charge from the Apple store and Google Play. Here you will find Adventures in the Castle: the itinerary dedicated to girls and boys, who will be able to travel through nine stages in the company of a friendly and colorful parrot who will accompany them in their discovery of a selection of museum masterpieces and some of the most evocative rooms of the building.
During the year you can participate in the workshop-activities for families that are organized on a monthly basis.
Before entering the Palazzo Madama, stop for a moment on the architecture of the building and on the square. “What strikes you about the facade? What do you remember?".
In the lobby "What are the differences from the buildings we normally live in?".
Set up your visit following a theme that may interest children: for example characters, animals, fantastic creatures, natural elements. So go in search of those works that present the chosen theme.
Let's watch together! Ask your children questions as you view the works. “What do you see?”, “What/who does it look like?”.
Depending on the age, you can ask your children to recognize colors, describe which elements are included in the composition, or list the materials that the artist used, or try to understand what a certain object is for.
Encourage the children to use their imagination. “What could you see, smell, touch or hear if you were inside the work?”.
Try to assume the positions of the characters or figures represented in order to "enter" the work. Read the caption next to the work. Does the title reflect what you saw? Alternatively, what title would you give it? Why? We observe from near and far. Try to look at the work from different positions. Depending on the distance what can you see? What changes? Bring pencils and sheets of paper and ask the children to draw some drawings of the works seen and the spaces visited. You can also try to write a poem or make up a story.
The South Veranda space could be the ideal place to stop, catch your breath… and create!
Once you leave the Museum, go around the Palace to see the exterior of the medieval castle. Are there many differences from the facade?
Once back home… In the Museum you can photograph the works (without the flash and easel): try to make a gallery of the works you liked best and compare each one's choices. Try to think of an exhibition with the objects you have at home or with your collection of figurines, stones, shells…
