The desire to spread and make known the problems faced by the Italian researchers in Antarctica led, in 1996, to the institution of the National Museum of the Antarctica. The Museum is an Inter-university Centre of the Universities of Genoa, Siena and Trieste, each of which, according to its own specific field of competence, forms an independent section.

The Siena Section displays an Antarctic Rock Collection, consisting of around 19,000 rock samples collected during the course of 15 Italian expeditions to the Antarctica, continuously incremented by new samples. It also boasts over 1,100 samples of meteorites, around 500 of them found in the Antarctica. Visitors can "explore" the Antarctica through films, interactive posts and observation of rocks, minerals, animals and plants, both living and fossilised.