Milan with Kids: The Best Museum Days
Milan has one genuinely world-class museum for children and it is not the one on most lists. The Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci at Via San Vittore 21 is Italy’s largest science and technology museum, and it holds real submarines, trains, aircraft and ships alongside working models built from Leonardo’s codices. Adults pay €10 and anyone aged 3 to 26 pays €7.50. Start here, and book the submarine separately. For guided options aimed at children, compare Milan family tours .
The submarine is the highlight and it is a separate ticket
The Enrico Toti stands in the museum grounds and you walk through the inside of it. It carries its own ticket and its own timed reservation, with strictly limited places, and it sells out. Museum admission does not include it.
Reserve both at once at museoscienza.org . The museum opens Tuesday to Friday 09:30 to 17:00 and Saturday and Sunday 09:30 to 18:30, closed Mondays, so a weekend visit buys an extra ninety minutes at the end of the day.
MUBA, and the weekday that will not let you in
MUBA, the Museo dei Bambini Milano, occupies the late-Baroque Rotonda della Besana and is built for children from 12 months to 12 years. Here is the rule that decides everything: Tuesday to Friday it is open to school groups only. Families get Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, on four timed sessions at 10:00, 11:30, 14:30 and 16:00.
€8 per child, €6 per adult, a €25 family pack for four, and a ten-entry pass at €55. The programme is a rotating hands-on exhibition rather than a permanent collection, so look at what is running before you go. Sessions are at muba.it .
What is inside the Acquario Civico?
About 50 species across freshwater and Mediterranean habitats. A mountain-stream tank with trout, a reproduction of a Lake Como shoreline, a Mediterranean reef, and a walk-under bridge tank where small catsharks and rays pass overhead. The building is as good as the fish: a surviving Liberty-style pavilion of 1906 from the Milan International Exhibition, and Italy’s third-oldest aquarium.
Viale Gerolamo Gadio 2, inside Parco Sempione. €8 since 10 May 2026, open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:30, closed Mondays, and free on the first Sunday and on the first and third Tuesday of the month. See acquariodimilano.it .
Dinosaurs, stars and a park you can lose an afternoon in
The Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli at Porta Venezia is Milan’s oldest public park and holds two things at once: the Museo di Storia Naturale, with dinosaur skeletons and full habitat dioramas, and the Planetario Ulrico Hoepli next door, Italy’s largest planetarium. The park itself has playgrounds, shade and enough space to let everyone recover between the two.
Parco Sempione, behind the Castello Sforzesco, is Milan’s largest central park, with playgrounds, the Acquario Civico, the Torre Branca and the Arena Civica inside it. The Castello courtyards are free and open daily, and the museums inside cost €5 for one ticket covering everything, including Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini.
The museum that is still open at 20:00
Milan’s museums mostly shut at 17:30, which leaves a gap before dinner that a tired family does not need. Leonardo3, The World of Leonardo, on Piazza della Scala at the Galleria end, opens daily 09:30 to 21:00 and closes only on 25 December. Physical working reconstructions of Leonardo’s machines that children are meant to touch, plus digital versions of the codices. Hours at leonardo3.net .
Boats, stadiums and a free garden
A scheduled battello cruise from the Darsena runs the Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese in about 50 minutes, roughly €19 adult, €10 for children aged 5 to 10, free under 5. Small children rate a boat well above a gallery. Compare Navigli boat trips if you want it guided.
For football-mad children, the San Siro Museum and Tour runs about 60 minutes through both clubs’ dressing rooms, the tunnel and pitchside, with reduced rates for under-14s and a family pack; the Skywalk on the external beams at 55 m is a separate ticket. The attraction tours guide has the detail.
The Orto Botanico di Brera is free, with entrances at Via Brera 28 and Via Fratelli Gabba 10, and it opens Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays and public holidays: 10:00 to 18:00 April to October, 09:30 to 16:30 November to March, per ortibotanici.unimi.it .
Two plans that go wrong with children
The Duomo terraces do not take strollers. The lift reaches only the first level at about 50 m, the upper walkways and the descent involve steps either way, and infants must be carried. If a toddler is in the group, the terraces are a carrying job, not a rooftop stroll.
The Last Supper is the wrong ticket for young children. Fifteen minutes of silence in a climate-controlled room, 40 people per slot, booked months ahead, no door sales at any price and no second chance. Teenagers with an interest get something from it. Under-tens generally do not, and the ticket is too scarce to spend on a maybe.
A two-day plan that actually works
Day one: science museum and the submarine in the morning, Castello courtyards and Parco Sempione in the afternoon, Leonardo3 when everything else closes. Day two: the aquarium at opening, the Navigli boat after lunch, and the Giardini Montanelli if the weather turns. The two-day Milan itinerary sequences the adult version, and the activities guide covers the rest. Family rooms near Porta Venezia or Cadorna keep the walking short, and you can check rates on Booking.com .
If your only free day is a Monday, skip the museums entirely. The science museum, the aquarium and the Castello collections all close, and the parks do not.