Today, the press conference for the presentation of the exhibition Etruscans and Veneti took place in Rome, in the Spadolini Room of the Ministry of Culture. The exhibition revolves around the complex and fascinating world of ancient religious practices, where water takes on a generative, therapeutic, and identity value, hosted in the rooms of the Doge's Apartment at Palazzo Ducale from March 6 to September 29, 2026.

It will be an unprecedented and peculiar comparison, a comparative investigation on the foundational role of water in the sacred horizon and for the development of societies in two great pre-Roman civilizations of Italy, Etruscans and Veneti, during the 1st millennium BC: seas, rivers, healing springs, and thermal waters are privileged environments for contact with the divine, spaces of healing, but also places for the growth of the community, destinations for transit and cultural exchange. The exhibition brings together archaeological artifacts of extraordinary value, many of which are unpublished and come from recent excavations, thanks to exceptional loans granted by important Italian museum institutions. The exhibition thus emerges as an advanced synthesis moment of archaeological research, aiming to combine scientific rigor and strong media impact.

A project of great scientific and educational scope, highlighting the dialogue between two civilizations different in geography and cultural roots, where exchanges and relationships flourished along that border in the 'land between the two rivers', between the lower course of the Adige and the ancient eastern course of the Po. An exchange of raw materials made possible by the opening of new trade routes, but also of ideas, cultures, and knowledge. Rivers, seas, and waters are symbols of constant movement, like that of people, coming together and leading to forms of mutual understanding between men and women. The exhibition project curated by Chiara Squarcina and Margherita Tirelli, is organized by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, with the patronage of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi e Italici, in collaboration with the Fondazione Luigi Rovati di Milano, which will host a second exhibition in the fall of 2026 (October 14 - January 10, 2027), strengthening a virtuous collaboration between institutions and territories, based on archaeological research and the enhancement of national heritage.