Ancient Ash

This is a cinerary urn from the Etruscan Museum in Volterra, Italy. It is one of thousands of such urns in the museum, which is one of the oldest public museums in Europe.

Roberta lives well north of Volterra, in the province of Turin, where she is studying natural sciences, but she has visited Volterra and considers it quite a lovely place.

Volterra is also an important location in book series, Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, which makes me wonder if the town has see an upsurge in tourism, like parts of New Zealand did after it was featured in the movie version of Lord of the Rings.