Until March 15, 2026: THE ETRUSCANS IN HOLLAND: THE ETRUSCAN PROJECT 40 YEARS LATER. MAEC (Etruscan Academy Museum), Palazzo Casali, Piazza Signorelli, Cortona. Open daily 10 am – 5 pm. Admission: €12, free for children under six, for those ages 7 – 18 entrance is €3.
The Christmas season in Italy, which stretches to January 6, inspires residents and visitors alike to take day trips (gite fuori porta). Cortona, a hour to an hour-and-a-half journey from Florence, high on a hill overlooking the Chiana Valley (Val di Chiana), is a popular destination for its seemingly endless collections– in terms of centuries spanned — of art and archeological artifacts. The town’s Etruscan Academy Museum is currently hosting a fascinating exhibition that traces the area’s legacy to its Etruscan roots.
The Etruscans were the original inhabitants of what was to become Tuscany, before conquest by the Romans gradually over several centuries before Christ. Their legacy, exhibited at the Cortona museum, and showcased during the 1985 Etruscan Project, organized by the Region of Tuscany, was the result of archeological excavations in the area.
Their Etruscan past was so important to the locals that an Etruscan Academy, and simultaneously, the Etruscan Academy Museum, was established in 1727 by scholars and local intellectuals. At the same time, the Corazzi family, sold their collection of Etruscan bronze statuettes — the nucleus of the current exhibition plus manuscripts and books — to the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, the Netherlands, its permanent home.
Some of the objects, found near Montecchio–between Cortona and Castelfiorentino–were unearthed by farmers tilling the soil. All date from the 4th to the 6th centuries B.C. The small works of art comprise a mythological griffin, a pig (the latter important to the local economy), a scoop, and figurines of a man and a woman, possibly Etruscan divinities and/or votive offerings. A modern Etruscan influence is seen in the display of hometown artist Gino Severini (b. Cortona 1883 – d. Paris, 1966) whose paintings are housed on an upper floor of the MAEC museum, in his Janus.
The two faced Roman god looks forward and back, and his name is commemorated as the month of January and the start of the New Year. Cortona’s MAEC will also be hosting its traditional “Breakfast at the Museum” (Colazione al Museo) on January 1, 2026 from 10:30 am to 12:30, an event that unites local culinary traditions with archeological exhibits, including admission to “The Etruscans in Holland” show.
Cortona during the extended holiday period also presents an Antique Toy Show at the Sant’Agostino Conference Center on via Guelfa. Designed for kids of all ages, the exhibition features model ships, planes, Lego creations and vintage Barbies.
As of December 2025, Italian Railways (Trenitalia) provides a cumulative round-trip train and bus ticket to Cortona. (rosanna cirigliano)
