The National Museum of Antarctica is unique within the European Union and is made up of three themed sites in Italy, the one in Trieste being devoted to the history of Antarctic research. The route offers the opportunity to become familar with all the features of the "White Continent" and to immerse oneself in its perennially icy environment of millions of years. The visitor is thus given the opportunity to know and "live" Antarctica and to bring with it the sensations of those who, with a spirit of adventure and courage, conquered this continent, often paying heroically with their lives in their desire to "know" .
The museum consists of materials and large-scale reconstructions organized in three distinct sections:
1) historiography of Antarctica, where one can also observe some precious original historical papers;
2) the history of Antarctic exploration, with particular reference to the three pioneers of one of the most rugged and difficult conquests of humankind: Ernest Henry Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen;
3) Italian expeditions since the early 1900s (Giovanni Ajmone Cat, Renato Cepparo) through to the most recent ones carried out by the National Research Project in Antarctica
1. Collection of memorabilia belonging to the commander Giovanni Ajmone Cat, who in 1969 and 1973 twice reached the Antarctic in a sailing-boat, becoming the first Italian to carry out this enterprise;
2. Collection of memorabilia belonging to Renato Cepparo, who financed and organized the first Italian expedition in Antarctica (Antarctic summer 1975-1976), with the aim of getting Italy into the group of states going to make up the signatories to the Antarctic Treaty.
