Home Museum Matteo Sercia (TEMPORARILY CLOSED)

The non-profit association House Museum Matteo Sercia, founded by Gabriele Sercia, offers its visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in the wonderful marine world while staying dry.

From his passion for the sea and malacology, and considering the multitude of beauties unknown to many that accumulated in drawers, Gabriele Sercia decided to share with those who want to approach this still partly unknown world, the vision of these extremely beautiful and ecologically and biologically important organisms through the museum exhibition.

The House Museum consists of three rooms, where it is possible to have an overview of the marine world. In the first room, there are two showcases displaying specimens of echinoderms, crustaceans, and fish, including "Arbacia lixula" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Paracentrotus lividus" (Lamarck, 1816), "Rhinobatos rhinobatos" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Spaerechinus granularis" (Lamarck, 1816), "Acanthaster planci" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Palinurus elephas" (Fabricius, 1787), "Calappa granulata" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Dromia personata" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Acanthaster planci" (Linnaeus, 1758). In the second room, seven large showcases allow observation of various shells belonging to Mediterranean and exotic mollusks, including "Rapana venosa" (Valenciennes, 1846), "Xenophora crispa" (König, 1825), "Chlamys proteus" (Dilleyn, 1817), "Trochus niloticus" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Cassis cornuta" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Mytilus galloprovincialis" (Lamarck, 1819), "Callista chione" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Pecten jacobaeus" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Trochus niloticus" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Bulla ampulla" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Tonna perdix" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Tonna dolium" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Pugilina morio" (Linnaeus, 1758), "Conus gloriamaris" (Chemnitz, 1777), "Lyncina aurantium" (Gmelin, 1791).

The museum visit concludes with a showcase dedicated to terrestrial malacology, where several endemic and exotic mollusks such as "Achatina sp", different species of "Anphidromus etc", as well as examples of freshwater gastropods and bivalves are located.

To obtain further information on the House Museum, you can request the "Brief Guide to House Museum Matteo Sercia," written by Gabriele Sercia and Paolo Balistreri and published by Casa Editrice Danaus. The visit is free, and a marine biologist (Dr. Paolo Balistreri) or the owner of House Museum, Mr. Gabriele Sercia, will guide you (depending on availability), who, in addition to leading you on a strictly scientific path, can tell you anecdotes, stories, and curiosities about the specimens on display and about the House Museum itself.