Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia

Lonely Planet review

This is the ideal place to bone up on Etruscan history. Italy's finest collection of pre-Roman treasures is bilingually labelled in Pope Julius III's 16th-century pleasure palace. The impressive villa and gardens were mostly the work of Vignola, Vasari and the artist Ammannat. Michelangelo also chipped in before getting on the wrong side of the irascible pope. It has pretty frescoed loggias and a much-imitated nymphaeum .

There are thousands of exhibits here: from extraordinary bronze figurines and black bucchero tableware to temple decorations, terracotta vases and even the remains of a horse-drawn chariot. Most of the items come from Etruscan burial tombs, many of which are in the surrounding Lazio region.

Highlights include the recently restored polychrome terracotta statue of Apollo found at Veio and the Sarcofago degli Sposi (Sarcophagus of the Betrothed; Sala XI in the second building) taken from a tomb at Cerveteri . Both date to the 6th century BC. The finely sculpted sarcophagus was made not for royals but for a regular husband and wife, and is adorned with a sculpture of the happy couple reclining on its lid.

There is also a dazzling display of sophisticated Etruscan (and later) jewellery.