Luigi Rovati Foundation

Just a few minutes’ walk from the Best Western Hotel City, in a sumptuous 19th-century building on Corso Venezia, is the Luigi Rovati Foundation, an art museum housing a permanent collection of Etruscan artifacts and periodically hosting themed exhibitions.

On the underground level, recently renovated for exhibitions, we find a space of remarkable visual impact, winding through circular rooms with walls and ceilings decorated with horizontal lines, in a semi-dark atmosphere dominated by illuminated display cases containing ancient Etruscan ceramics, bronzes, and gold objects. The effect is that of finding oneself in a timeless place, where the millennia-old civilization of our Italic ancestors leaves its mark through some of its marvelous treasures.

Amphorae, vases, ampoules, jugs and cups of various types and functions, decorated with mythological and naturalistic motifs, convey a sense of the refined Etruscan aesthetic, expressed in sinuous forms where curves and verticality coexist with the objects’ practical purposes. Among the ceramic, bucchero, and alabaster artifacts are also small ointment jars, containers designed to hold precious aromas for female body care, a highly prized aspect in the Etruscan world, which attributed aristocratic women an active role in public life.

Stone sculptures, mostly funerary, testify that the art of this people was not only connected to worldly life, but also intended for the afterlife. Some cinerary urns, preserved in the museum, feature a reproduction of the deceased on their lids, intended to honor their life and preserve them intact for their journey after death. Another work, a late Etruscan columnar cippus, depicts the departure of a warrior bidding farewell to his family.

On the upper floors, where the halls overlooking the park retain their 19th-century style, Etruscan artefacts meet contemporary works of art, offering visitors a pleasant leap back in time that allows them to rediscover the symbolic affinities between the people of yesterday and today.

Admission to the museum is free on the first Sunday of the month, with a fee for all other days (open Wednesday to Sunday). Included in the ticket price is a downloadable Foundation app that provides information about the works along the exhibition route.

If you’re a lover of antiquities, don’t miss this visit: in just over an hour, you’ll be immersed in the Etruscan world and immersed in the atmosphere of a luxurious Milanese palace.
For further information, please don’t hesitate to ask our receptionists.