egypt in italy

Rainy days are meant for museums and so we found our way to the depths of the Museo Egizio -- the Egyptian Museum of Turin. This museum is said to be second only to Cairo in its collection of Egyptian artifacts and covers 5,000 years of history. It is an absolutely overwhelming collection if a little underwhelming at times in its presentation. When it comes down to it, I suppose when you've got something 5,000 years old sitting in front of you it's pretty mind-blowing no matter what sort of signage is (or is not) there to explain it.



As a result I have come away with an appreciation for the pieces within the museum if not a thorough understanding of what they all mean. I will say that when we walked into the first gallery of statuary both Stefano and I were shocked by the depth of the collection. There are so many pieces and they are in such good condition it really is difficult to believe that they are as old as they are. In one of the first rooms of the musuem one of the signs explained that items in Egypt were remarkably well-preserved because of the dry condition of the territory.

(Note photo of open window on rainy day in statuary gallery. Maybe by "dry" they really mean "not under the ocean and so a little direct moisture now and again won't hurt anything." Ever been to a relics museum with an open window before? Nope, me neither.)



Neither of us had never seen hieroglyphics as crisp and sharp as those in the museum-- nor painted elements whose tint was as vibrant. There are also mummies, intact tombs and funerary articles that are in astonishingly pristene condition. Photos from the actual excavations give you a sense of how one goes about "finding" the tomb of a pharaoh in the middle of the Egyptian desert and exactly what it looks like when you find it. While still a mystery to me, at least I have a small mental picture of where these pieces lay in wait for so many thousands of years.



There were, however, two things at the museum of which I was not a fan. Left hands. And right hands. People were touching everything. Literally laying both hands on these pieces of history and dragging their fingers along the hieroglyphics. And not just kids. Full-age adults were actually setting their cameras on tombs so that they could take steady photos without using a flash.



There were no security guards to be found. Let me just say that in the States I was once reprimanded for blowing in the direction of a contemporary art piece that was obviously made to respond to wind currents. And this was contemporary art made in current times by a questionably talented artist. Not the keys to Ancient Egypt in the second most important Egyptian museum in the world. The only time I saw a parent remove her child's grubby hands from a statue was after I took a photo of him touching it.

What was I saying about Italy being a place totally it's own...