MArTA — the Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto — houses one of the most important collections of ancient Greek material culture in existence. Taranto was the capital of Magna Graecia, and the museum's holdings reflect the extraordinary wealth and sophistication of the city at its peak in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. The goldwork alone would justify the visit: the collection of ancient Greek jewelry, diadems, earrings, and funerary wreaths is unmatched anywhere in the world for quantity and quality.
The museum is well laid out across multiple floors of a former Franciscan convent, and the exhibits are intelligently contextualized. Beyond the gold, there are remarkable terracotta figurines from the sanctuaries of the city, fine red-figure pottery from the local workshops, and a comprehensive collection of material from the ancient necropolis. For anyone interested in the Greek world — and particularly in what the Italian south looked like before Rome — this is a mandatory stop.