Guarnacci Museum
One of the largest collections of Etruscan artefacts in Europe, this museum is well worth visiting. It is laid out in a dry and rather 19th-century fashion but if you take the time but examine the finds there are some truly beautiful pieces, showing how advanced the Etruscan civilisation was. The faces on the sarcophagi may seemly vaguely familiar; this is because the same people are still walking around the town of Volterra. A few years ago a study was done in which the images of dead Etruscans were compared with local people. The profiles and features are remarkably similar, the DNA of the locals is still essentially what it was over 2000 years ago.
Famous artefacts include the married couple sarcophagus, as well as a well-known statue called "L'Ombra della sera" or "Evening shadow", an extraordinarily elongated human figure that looks just like someone's shadow at the end of the day.
The museum can be visited every day from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm in the summer.
Palazzo Desideri Tangassi
Via Don Minzoni n° 15
56048 - Volterra (PI)
