Rome, Villa Giulia

I visited the Villa Giulia for the first time in 1982, a couple of days before my eighteenth birthday. I had read the first five books by Livy and had become fond of early Roman history, which naturally drove me to a museum devoted to the art of ancient Etruria and archaic Latium. I still have some of the slides I made back then, but I do not remember much of my visit, except the double surprise that there was a picture of an elephant and that the building itself was a monument from the Renaissance.

Two years later, I returned with my father, and I remember (a) the excellent coffee and (b) that the museum was very, very big. It was too much to comprehend. On later visits, I started to recognize some system, and it seemed as if the size of the museum was, after all, limited. Still, I overestimated it; when I visited the Villa Giulia in 2009, I believed I needed several hours, but in the end, a couple of hours were sufficient to see everything and take photos.

The collection itself is beautiful, and explanatory notes are really good. I was impressed by the Pyrgi temple façade and the gold tablets, the statues from Veii, and the finds of Satricum. The only object I did not see, was the elephant, which happened to be on loan to another museum.

This museum was visited in a/o 1982, 1984, 2009.

25 pictures related to this museum

Veii, Portonaccio Sanctuary, Statue of Hercle (Hercules)	Veii, Antefix (Silenus)	Veii, Statue of an official	Veii, Statues of Aplu and Menrva
Helmet from Central Italy	Caere, Hunter on horseback	Veii, Portonaccio Sanctuary, Antefix (Gorgo)	Praeneste, Ivory of a warrior
Veii, Portonaccio Sanctuary, Relief of a horseman	Veii, Statue of an official	Caere, Bucchero pottery	Veii, Portonaccio Sanctuary, Statue of Uni (Juno)