Listed here are some suggestions for those readers who wish to further expand their knowledge of Ancient Italy.
Gary D. Farney and Guy Bradley (eds.), The Peoples of Ancient Italy. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017.
Kathryn Lomas, The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars (1000 BC–264 BC). London: Profile Books, 2017.
Dexter Hoyos (ed.), A Companion to the Punic Wars. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2011.
Lucy Shipley, The Etruscans (Lost Civilization). London: Reaktion Books, 2017.
Mary T. Boatwright, The Romans: From Village to Empire: A History of Rome from Earliest Times to the End of the Western Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Luca Cerchiai, Lorena Jannelli, and Fausto Longo, The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Los Angeles: Getty Museum Publications, 2004.
Andrea Carandini and Paolo Carafa (eds.), The Atlas of Ancient Rome: Biography and Portraits of the City (2 vols.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Ada Gabucci, Rome—Dictionaries of Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Alison E. Cooley (ed.), A Companion to Roman Italy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2016.
Further insights on Italian archaeology can be found in books published in the series Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (http://librarything.com).
Readers may also subscribe to the magazines Archaeology (https://www.archaeology.org), published by the Archaeological Institute of America, and Current World Archaeology (https://www.world-archaeology.com), which is a magazine sold on newsstands in both Great Britain and North America and via subscription. The British School at Rome regularly publishes a newsletter with information and updates on current excavation projects of the School in Italy as well as on new publications. Information on sites can be found on the web pages of several nonprofit associations and foundations, such as the Friends of Roman Ostia Foundation (http://www.ostia-antica.org; https://www.ostia-foundation.org) and the Roman Ports Projects (https://www.romanports.org/en/). The UNESCO website also represents a good source of information for the sites inscribed in the World Heritage List. Information on Valcamonica (in both Italian and English) is available at the website http://www.vallecamonicaunesco.it. There are also a large number of online publications available only in Italian, but they can be browsed all the same in search of relevant information. The most important archaeological magazines are Forma Urbis (http://www.formavrbis.com) and Archeologia Viva (https://www.archeologiaviva.it). Roma Sparita is a project collecting a huge number of photographs portraying Rome in the past (https://www.romasparita.eu).
There are several American museums that have world-renowned collections of ancient Italian artifacts. These are: the Getty Villa, Malibu, California, which has a collection of forty-four thousand Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6500 BC to 400 CE; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, whose collection includes a magnificently detailed Etruscan chariot known as the “Monteleone chariot”; the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. If you will be traveling to Italy, there are several museums that you must not miss.
Outstanding collections of prehistoric artifacts dating from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age are exhibited in several museums throughout Italy. If you are interested in the Paleolithic, the Prehistoric Museum and Park of “Balzi rossi” (Ventimiglia) and the Museo Archeologico del Finale (Finale Ligure), where the Arene Candide Cave assemblage is displayed, are essential. If Copper Age is your epoch of interest, the Museo Archeologico dell’Alto Adige—Südtiroler Archäologiemuseum in Bolzano (www.iceman.it), where Ötzi the iceman is kept, and the Megalithic site of Saint-Martinde-Corléans (Aosta) should not be missed. The most ancient plow in the world can be visited at the Museo di Desenzano del Garda, while a reconstruction of Neolithic pile dwellings can be visited at the Museo della Palafitte di Fiavè (www.museopalafittefiave.it). Most of the Middle Bronze Age Terramare artifacts are displayed at the Musei Civivi in Modena, where you can admire old and new collections of bronze and ceramic artifacts. Close to Modena there is an archaeological park that presents the reconstruction of a prehistoric Terramara village; the Parco della Terramara at Montale Rangone (www.parcomontale.it). In the outdoor museum a part of the village with moat, embankment, and two houses decorated with pottery, tools, weapons, and clothes has been rebuilt. It faithfully reproduces the original of 3,500 years ago. The Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini in Rome is the oldest and perhaps the biggest Italian museum entirely dedicated to prehistory and ethnography. In the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi (Siracusa) the prehistoric collection from the Eolian islands is displayed. The most relevant museums collecting Sardinian prehistoric artifacts are the “Giovanni Antonio Sanna” National Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum at Sassari and the National Archaeological Museum in Cagliari. The Mont’e Prama artifacts are displayed at the Civic Archaeological Museum Cabras (https://www.museocabras.it/en/). In Sicily, the Phoenician site of Mothia and the Museum G. Whitaker in Marsala are also a must-see.
The most important collections for Magna Graecia are the Paestum Archaeological Park and Museum (http://www.museopaestum.beniculturali.it). In the museum one can admire the metopes from the Heraion, and the so-called Tomba del Tuffatore. Among the most spectacular finds on display in the Naples National Archaeological Museum there are the finds from Pithekoussai and some of the most outstanding finds from Pompeii, such as the world-famous mosaic depicting the Battle of Issus between Alexander and Darius III. The mosaic, the largest in the House of the Faun in Pompeii, made up of about one million tesserae, depicts the battle of Issus fought between Alexander the Great and Darius III in 333 BC (https://museoarcheologiconapoli.it). In the Archaeological Park of Metaponto and the associated Archaeological National Museum there is a wide range of archaeological finds dating back to the time when Metaponto was founded until the coming of the Romans. The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto boasts one of Italy’s most important archeological collections. The rooms dedicated to Greek Taranto display a large exposition of artifacts such as grave goods and gold jewelry, but visitors can also admire everyday objects relating to worship and funerary rituals in Greek Taranto. The National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria (https://www.museoarcheologicoreggiocalabria.it/?lang=en) has on display outstanding collections covering all the epochs from prehistory to the Middle Ages. Besides the worldwide famous Riace bronze statues, the collection comprises outstanding objects and architectural elements from Magna Graecia cities and sanctuaries. The majestic Greek temples built in strict Doric order can be admired in the Archaeological Park of Selinunte (https://en.visitselinunte.com/archaeological-park/). The Archaeological Landscape Area of the Valle dei Templi and the Regional Archaeological Museum in Agrigento are certainly two of the most important and visited archaeological parks and museums in Sicily and in Italy. The archaeological museum displays more than 5,688 artifacts, among them the collection of Attic and Italic pottery from the Greek cemetery of Agrigento is outstanding. Not to be missed is the white krater with Perseus and Andromeda (about 430 BC). The Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonio Salinas” in Palermo is the most ancient public museum of Sicily. The highlight of the exhibition is the hall with the famous metopes of the Temples of Selinunte described as one of the most important sculptural structures of ancient Greek art.
Republican-era remains are scarcely preserved in Rome, except for the sacred area of Sant’Omobono and part of the collections displayed in the Capitoline Museums (www.museicapitolini.org/en) and in the Centrale Montemartini (www.centralemontemartini.org/en), whose collections also include materials belonging to the imperial age. In Lazio, the region in which Rome is located, some cities have preserved structures dating back to this period. If you want to see what a basilica of the republican era looked like and which structures belonged to a forum, the best place to go is Palestrina. Here you can visit the Forum of Praeneste Complex (www.sabap-rm-met.beniculturali.it/it/462/complesso-degli-edifici-del-foro-di-praeneste), which was recently restored and is open to the public. In Palestrina you can also visit the National Archaeological Museum, which displays artifacts from republican and imperial Praeneste. The Museum is located in Palazzo Colonna Barberini, which was built on the structures of one of the most famous sanctuaries of antiquity, that of Fortuna Primigenia, which together with the sanctuary of Tivoli, dedicated to Ercole Vincitore (www.villaadriana.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/206/santuario-di-ercole-vincitore), was considered the most sacred of the Roman world. Outside Lazio, monuments of the republican era can be visited mainly in southern Italy: perhaps the one that best represents the Italic architecture of this period is the sanctuary of Pietrabbondante, in Molise (www.musei.molise.beniculturali.it/musei?mid=6691&nome=santuario-italico).
Structures belonging to the imperial period have generally been preserved better than the republican ones, as they were often built to replace those of the republican period. Taking a walk through the archaeological complex formed by the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum (https://parcocolosseo.it/en/) in Rome is like leafing through a history book. Each page is connected to the other by a series of events that left their material mark in the center of power of what was among the most extensive empires of the ancient world. Unlike other European and world cities, there is no single museum in Rome that collects all the most important finds from the Roman world. Besides the above-mentioned Centrale di Montemartini and Capitoline Museums, outstanding collections of imperial-epoch artifacts and masterpieces of art are on display at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it/it/170/palazzo-massim), Palazzo Althemps (www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it/it/171/palazzo-altemps), and the Vatican Museums (www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/it.html).
Roman civilization is considered of paramount importance for innovations in engineering and the infrastructures that were built throughout the Mediterranean. To celebrate these achievements during the fascist regime, a museum dedicated to the pioneering technological and architectural works of the Romans was created. The Museum of Roman Civilization (www.museociviltaromana.it) displays models and reconstructions of works created by the Romans, including the splendid model made by the Italian archaeologist Gismondi depicting Rome in the third century AD. Despite the ideological background of the museum, which reflects the historical period in which it was conceived, it remains a place worth visiting. If you want to see the engineering works of the Romans with your own eyes, in particular those connected to water supply, the Aqueducts Park (www.parcodegliacquedotti.it) is a unique place in Italy where it is possible to admire the monumental remains of some ancient aqueducts surrounded by nature. Walking in this almost intact section of Rome’s countryside, which is now incorporated in the city, you will find yourself in one of Roesler Franz’s watercolors. Other impressive hydraulic engineering structures are the Baths of Caracalla (www.soprintendenzaspecialeroma.it/schede/terme-di-caracalla-eng_3010), the largest thermal baths in the Roman world and the best preserved one. This archaeological complex is now equipped with a virtual reality path, and further parts of the baths were also recently opened to the public, such as the baths’ basements. For the lovers of Roman Baths another archaeological site that is a must-see is the Archaeological Museum of Campi Flegrei in Bacoli, Naples (www.pafleg.it). The museum displays unique archaeological finds of extraordinary value from the Campi Flegrei, an area whose fame was associated with the pleasantness of its places and the health-giving properties of its thermal springs and climate. The Appia Antica Park (www.parcoarcheologicoappiaantica.it) preserves the most famous of the Roman roads, the Appian Way, known as Regina Viarum (the queen of roads), which was celebrated by poets and artists during the traditional grand tours undertaken in Italy. In addition to the numerous tombs and mausoleums, it is possible to visit the immense Villa dei Quintilii. This is one of the best preserved villas in the Roman world, owned by a family linked to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius, which was once the residence of Commodus. Close by is the villa of Maxentius, the last emperor who tried to defend paganism and the centrality of the western part of the empire, who was defeated by Constantine. The imperial insignia of Maxentius are displayed in the Museum of Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (see above). The Pisa ships described in chapter 5 are on display in the dedicated recently opened museum (www.navidipisa.it/en/).
A large number of imperial Roman cities and monuments have been excavated in Italy: in addition to the three cities described in chapter 4—Ostia Antica (www.ostiaantica.beniculturali.it/it/home), Pompeii (pompeiisites.org/en), and Herculaneum (ercolano.beniculturali.it)—a short list of archaeological sites open to the public is given below. Starting from the northwest of the peninsula toward the east and the south to the islands, these sites are definitely worth a visit:
the Roman Theater of Aosta (www.regione.vda.it/cultura/patrimonio/siti_archeologici/augusta_praetoria/teatro_romano/default_i.asp)
the Archaeological areas of Susa (archeo.piemonte.beniculturali.it/index.php/it/musei/aree-archeologiche/70-aree-arch-prov-di-torino/345-aree-archeologiche-di-susa)
the Archaeological Park of Libarna (archeo.piemonte.beniculturali.it/index.php/it/musei/aree-archeologiche/65-aree-arch-prov-di-alessandria/297-area-archeologica-di-libarna)
the Archaeological Park of Luni (www.musei.liguria.beniculturali.it/musei?mid=404&nome=museo-archeologico-nazionale-e-zona-archeologica-di-luni)
the Archaeological Park of Nervia—Albintimilium (www.musei.liguria.beniculturali.it/musei?mid=5031&nome=area-archeologica-di-nervia)
the Archaeological Park of Brixia—Brescia (www.bresciamusei.com)
the National Archaeological Museum and Park of Altino (polomusealeveneto.beniculturali.it/musei/museo-archeologico-nazionale-e-area-archeologica-di-altino)
the Arena di Verona (www.arena.it)
the Archaeological Park of Aquileia (www.fondazioneaquileia.it/en)
the Archaeological Park of Roman Veleia (www.polomusealeemiliaromagna.beniculturali.it/musei/area-archeologica-di-veleia-romana)
the Roman Theater of Florence (www.imuseidifirenze.it/palazzo-vecchio),
the National Archaeological Museum of Spoleto (http://www.archeopg.arti.beniculturali.it/?page_id=151)
the Archeological Park of Otricoli (www.beniculturali.it/mibac/opencms/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Luogo/MibacUnif/Luoghi-della-Cultura/visualizza_asset.html?id=150645&pagename=57,ocriculum.it/)
the Archaeological Park of Carsulae (www.carsulae.it)
the Urban and territorial Museum of Saepinum (www.musei.molise.beniculturali.it/musei?mid=209&nome=museo-della-citta-e-del-territorio-sepino)
the “Antiquarium Turritano” National Archaeological Museum and the nearby Archaeological Area (www.antiquariumturritano.it)
the Roman Amphitheater of Cagliari (http://www.beniculturalicagliari.it/)
The end of the Roman Empire in the west did not mean the decline of classical civilization but only its transformation. Cultural and social traditions as well as imperial political institutions were kept throughout the early Middle Ages, sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages, often defended by peoples that the classicist tradition defined as barbarians and that moved southward during the so-called migration period culminating in the fifth century AD. Outstanding artifacts dating to the early Middle Ages are on display in two dedicated museums: the National Roman Museum—Crypta Balbi (www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it/it/169/crypta-balbi) and the Museum of Early Middle Ages (www.altomedioevo.beniculturali.it/). The first is the result of the excavation of an entire block of ancient and medieval Rome and is considered a milestone for the development of urban archeology in Italy. The second has a more traditional layout, since it was created several decades earlier and presents collections of unique pieces, including the integral reconstruction of the marble opus sectile decoration belonging to a late antique domus in ancient Ostia. The most beautiful and best-preserved late antique villa in Italy—with its iconic collection of mosaics depicting women in bikinis playing with a ball—is the Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina (www.villaromanadelcasale.it/).
In northern Italy the territories once belonging to the Roman Empire were disputed between the different peoples who settled there: the Byzantines, the Goths, the Lombards. The museums of Pavia (www.museicivici.pavia.it/) and Cividale del Friuli (www.museoarcheologicocividale.beniculturali.it/en/1/home) have large collections of Goth and Lombard artifacts on display. Ravenna is the center of Byzantine domination in Italy. The National Museum of Ravenna (www.polomusealeemiliaromagna.beniculturali.it/musei/muntryo-national-of-ravenna) and the Ancient port of Classe (www.anticoportoravenna.it/) give insights into this crucial period.
Finally, two Italian museums collecting Egyptian and Middle and Far Eastern artifacts that deserve a visit are the National Museum of Oriental Art “Giuseppe Pucci” in Rome (www.museocivilta.beniculturali.it/sezioni/museo-arte-orientale-tucci.html), and the Egyptian museum in Turin.