If you have seen one, you have not seen them all

Friday, October 7, 2011

Cerveteri. In its time, this was the great Etruscan city, Kysry. Today, the main attraction for us was one of its many necropoles, Banditaccia. Alex has one of his best buddies visiting and our idea was that this would be similar to our adventures in other Etruscan tombs and cities of the dead. We were very wrong. It's hard to top Tarquinia, but Cerveteri did it.

First we visited the museum. Neil's school was visiting as well, so we were along for the bus ride and the archeology and art history lessons, too. Our kids listened carefully to the information and even completed the field guides!

During the lunch time down time, I found pigeons to watch with Eleni while

Alex and his buddy walked around and around this Renaissance fountain and discussed various methods of taking over the town.

I'm not sure what they agreed upon at last. But, here is the town for you. How would you attack this structure? Where? How many people would you have in your army?

We walked almost a mile from the city to the necropolis. The Etruscans buried their dead in cities of their own and Cerveteri truly exemplifies that. There are streets and piazzas for the 7th -6th century dead here. There are thousands of tombs here and many haven't even been excavated yet. Here was the entrance to the site.

As I walked under the Umbrella Pines, I took this photo of what I saw on my left.

There are many different periods of tomb building. One of the most famous in Cerveteri is its most unique: The Tomb of the Reliefs.

My favorite part was the red pillows they provided, as well. There is even a cat and mouse continually playing their parts out for eternity.

And, here I am. You can see that this was similar to Tarquinia. Glass separating us from the actual place. However, I was very wrong to think the rest would be similar.

You can go into any tomb you want as long as you aren't afraid of spiders and snakes. I tried venturing into a few of these, but without a flashlight, a few brushes with spider webs and images of slimy beings on me, I didn't make it very far.

The marked tombs are a bit easier. Lights are provided for you to find your way and they are clean so you don't have to fear things jumping out at you.

Tufo! Now I can see it's everywhere!

Eleni, Alex and his friend were helpful actors in Neil's students' history film projects. I think Alex and his buddy were grave robbers in this scene.

Most tombs are empty of art now, but some of the best and most famous examples of Etruscan art were found at this necropolis.

Three hours of exploring, climbing, walking, and gelato-ing it later and she is still smiling!*

Creating a replica of a tomb. Several teenagers helped out with this soon after I took this photo.

A lion guarding the Tomb of the Reliefs.

And, there you go. Neil and I definitely felt as though this was one of our best visits, but that could have been more about how happy the kids were in their friendships; Alex had his buddy and Eleni had around twenty teenagers at her beck and call.

* Eleni's group of five students won the short film contest. I'm sure it was due to her superb acting skills...