The building and the cloister
Sauerbruch Hutton's shifting ceramic facade, plus a covered passage through a sixteenth-century convent courtyard you can walk into without a ticket.
Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0 · dalbera — CC BY 2.0 · dalbera — CC BY 2.0 · dalbera — CC BY 2.0
On a short first visit, no — the historic centre will swallow your two or three days without any help. If you are back in Venice a second time, travelling with teenagers who have had enough of altarpieces, or facing a day of rain or acqua alta, then yes: ten minutes on the train buys two quiet hours in something completely unlike the rest of the city.
No on both counts. M9 is run by an independent foundation, so its ticket is entirely separate from the civic Museum Pass that covers the Doge's Palace and the Correr. And Mestre lies outside the historic centre, so the day-visitor access fee charged on peak days is not required to come here — though it may still be required when you cross into the island itself on those days.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
There is barely a single object behind glass at M9, and that is the point rather than a shortage of things to show. The whole museum is screens, immersive rooms, archive film and recorded voices, built to tell how Italians lived their twentieth century: how they worked, ate, travelled and voted, and how their homes, bodies and habits changed across a hundred years. It opened in December 2018 in Mestre, on the mainland rather than on the island of Venice, and it is billed as Italy's first fully digital history museum. Half the pleasure is the building itself. Berlin's Sauerbruch Hutton wrapped it in graduated ceramic tiles that shift as you move and as the daylight turns, and planted it inside the restored sixteenth-century Convento delle Grazie. The passage that cuts through the covered convent courtyard, with its café and its mix of shops and company offices, is open to anyone without a ticket from 8am to midnight — you can walk through, photograph it and leave it at that if the rest does not tempt you. Now the honest part. If this is a first visit to Venice and you have two or three days, skip M9 without regret: the basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Accademia will take everything you have. But if you are back for a second time, worn down by the crush around San Marco, or facing a day of rain or acqua alta in autumn or winter, M9 is a clever, quiet refuge that is rarely busy. Be aware, too, that the material is deeply Italian: English translation is provided, but the emotional weight sits in songs, newsreels and adverts aimed at an Italian memory. Teenagers in the family tend to come out happier than the adults. Practically, it is a modern building with lifts and level floors — one of the very few places around Venice you can enter with a pushchair or a wheelchair without fighting bridges and their steps. Mestre is an ordinary town with ordinary prices: restaurants far cheaper than the island, and several halal kebab and shawarma places around nearby Piazza Ferretto. The train from Santa Lucia to Mestre station takes about ten minutes, followed by a walk of roughly fifteen minutes (1.2 km), or take the tram from Piazzale Roma into central Mestre and walk a few minutes from there. Just remember the doors are shut on Monday and Tuesday.
Sauerbruch Hutton's shifting ceramic facade, plus a covered passage through a sixteenth-century convent courtyard you can walk into without a ticket.
The permanent route crosses two floors of immersive rooms, archive film and sound rather than paintings and display cases.
Air-conditioned, step-free and rarely crowded, which makes it useful on an acqua alta day or in the August heat.
Via Giovanni Pascoli 9, 30171 Venezia Mestre, Italy