Indiana Eleni

Friday, August 26

Tarquinia. Neil drove us 40 miles westward today to the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinia. There was so much to see; much like most areas we've explored you see history overlapping history with Etruscan, Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance ruins.

We started out on the necropolis, where over 6,000 tombs have been found. We probably visited a total of twenty, but what fun we had doing that! You descend down these spooky staircases and then press a button for the light to show you the frescoes in the tombs. Super exciting for intrepid adventurers, as demonstrated by Eleni here.

This tomb was decorated in the 3rd century BC, before the Romans took over the town. It shows a huge winged Caronte, much like the Greek Charon, with snake like hair here on the wall. The Etruscans would have their sarcophagus here, along with other treasures to take into the afterlife. Some tombs that had holes in the walls where tomb robbers had crept in, too. For a certain six-year-old, it was all very Scooby Doo-ish.

Archeologists have interpreted this same tomb showing Vanth, the Goddesses of the dead (on the right) with her torch lighting the way to Hades. Carone is on the throne to the left along with two other family members who had died before.

While Neil, Eleni and I were scurrying from tomb to tomb, Alex was happily playing the entomologist. You can see how the tombs are protected in this photo, as well.

The men are depicted in red and the women in white. Men were tanned from being out in the sun and women were inside the homes? One theory.

An hour of dehydration and fifteen minutes in the car later, we were at the Mediterranean. We put up our umbrella and tried to fit in with the others.

Yes, Alex and Eleni are in the water in the background there, but really I took this photo with the hopes that that island you can barely see in the background to the right is Elba island. It matched up on the map, but I'm not certain and I'm highly suspect. I'm in the middle of reading War and Peace right now, and I think my imagination would happily have that as Napoleon's prison.

We had a picnic at the seaside and hours of swimming and collecting driftwood and rocks. When we were all all sufficiently covered in the black sand, we got back in the car and went into the town of Tarquinia to visit the museum.

What a treat! We saw the treasures that had been in the tombs. Bribed with gelato later, Eleni and Alex were helpful in finding Cerberus, griffins, angels, lions, and jaguar decorations.

I was taken by the ancient glass and jewelry.

Two expressos and two gelatos later, we were on our way home.

And, thankfully, we had some guests from home visit. We had a lovely evening at the local pizzeria around the corner from our apartment. Look at this boy's face when he was given an American dollar! He's back in the game (for a bit).