Museo Etrusco Guarnacci

Top choice in Volterra


The vast collection of artefacts exhibited here makes this one of Italy's most impressive Etruscan collections. Found locally, they include some 600 funerary urns carved mainly from alabaster and tufa – perhaps the pick is the Urna degli sposi (Urn of the Spouses), a strikingly realistic terracotta rendering of an elderly couple. The finds are displayed according to subject and era; the best examples (those dating from later periods) are on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Make sure you track down the crested helmet excavated from the Tomba del Guerruccia at nearby Poggio alle Croci; and the L'Ombra della sera (Shadow of the Evening), an elongated bronze nude figurine that bears a striking resemblance to the work of the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.


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