Official Information
Official website: https://pact.cultura.gov.it/
Online tickets: https://www.museiitaliani.it/ >> https://portale.museiitaliani.it/b2c/buyTicketless/0718d39c-4f0d-4d3d-9703-ec19a502b345
Address: Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia (Palazzo Vitelleschi), Piazza Cavour 1A, 01016 Tarquinia (VT), Italy / Necropoli dei Monterozzi, Strada Provinciale 43 Via Ripagretta, 01016 Tarquinia (VT), Italy
Google map: View on Google Maps
Opening Hours
The museum and necropolis follow hours set by the Parco Archeologico di Cerveteri e Tarquinia. As of recent updates, the National Archaeological Museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi is generally open Tuesday to Sunday during the day with Monday closure, while the Monterozzi necropolis opens in daytime hours with seasonal extensions in summer. Both use staggered last-entry times. Timetables and any extraordinary closures change periodically, so check the official PACT “Orari e tariffe” section before planning your visit.
Tarquinia is one of the key gateways to understanding Etruscan civilization, and the combination of its painted tombs at the Monterozzi necropolis with the collections of the National Archaeological Museum makes a visit especially rich. The museum is housed in Palazzo Vitelleschi, a late Gothic–Renaissance palace whose courtyard and loggias already justify the trip. Inside, the displays present material from Tarquinia and the surrounding territory: funerary goods from elite burials, decorated sarcophagi, terracotta sculptures, bucchero ware, imported Greek pottery, and everyday objects that reveal trade networks across the Mediterranean. Many finds come directly from the necropolis, allowing you to link objects to the tomb architecture you then see outside. The Monterozzi necropolis, part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing alongside Cerveteri, conserves hundreds of rock-cut chamber tombs. Only a rotating selection of the best preserved are open at any one time, but they offer a remarkable survey of Etruscan art from the 7th to 2nd centuries BC. You descend short stairways into painted chambers where banqueting scenes, dancers, musicians, athletes, hunters, and mythological scenes unfold across the walls and ceilings. The vivid use of color and the energy of the figures give a direct sense of beliefs about the afterlife and aristocratic self-representation. Pathways across the low hill of the necropolis connect the main clusters of tombs; information panels explain themes and chronology, and lighting is controlled to protect the pigments, so visits are timed. The same archaeological park authority manages both museum and necropolis and coordinates ticketing through the national Musei Italiani system. Plan enough time to see the museum before or after the necropolis so the contexts reinforce one another. Tarquinia town itself, with its medieval core and sea views, makes a good base or day-trip destination, and combining Tarquinia with nearby Cerveteri allows you to compare two complementary expressions of Etruscan funerary culture.