Since its original opening in New York two years ago, the "Darwin" exhibition has itself evolved enormously; and the inauguration of its Italian incarnation, exactly two hundred years after Charles Darwin was born, will mark its highest point of refinement. Tailored specifically for an Italian audience, the new exhibition will not only lay out the evidence substantiating the view of the living world that informs all of modern biology, but will also retrace the physical and intellectual journeys that were taken by Darwin on his way to discovering the organizing principles that underwrite Life's luxuriant and astonishing diversity.

Visitors will discover the important features of the living world in exactly the way that Darwin did himself, and will learn just how huge the variety was of the observations and influences that underwrote the formulation of the notion of evolution by natural selection - not least among them the radical views of the Italian paleontologist Giovanni Battista Brochi on the finite nature of species. Expanded in scope for the Italian audience, this evocative and beautiful show also expands on the specific implications of Darwinian thinking for human origins; and it will show, through the display of original fossils and exquisite replicas, just how important the Italian hominid fossil record has been in completing our current picture of human emergence.