Valentino Nizzo: The Turning Point in an Archaeologist's Career

In an interview for ArtsLife's series 'La svolta' (The Turning Point), Valentino Nizzo, an Etruscologist and archaeologist, recounts the pivotal moment in his career: March 14, 2015. On that day, he inaugurated the reinstallation of the archaeological section of the Museo Civico di Belriguardo in Voghiera, Italy, which he curated as an archaeologist for the Soprintendenza Archeologia dell'Emilia-Romagna. The then-Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, attended the event. Nizzo's approach, which included using reenactors to bridge the gap between artifacts and human stories, impressed the minister. Shortly after, Franceschini invited Nizzo to Rome to work at the newly established Direzione Generale Musei, focusing on communication, promotion, and accessibility of the national museum system. This opportunity led to further roles, including coordinating the European Heritage Days, promoting the principles of the Faro Convention, and directing the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. Currently, Nizzo is a professor of Etruscology and Italic Antiquities at the University of Naples L'Orientale. He emphasizes that his career has been guided by a consistent philosophy: making archaeology participatory and public, as demonstrated in his work at Pilastri di Bondeno after the 2012 earthquake and in the ongoing DiscoVereto project in Patù, a small town in southern Italy, where he runs a university excavation open to the community.