Etruscan Country - Pre-Roman Italy
The Italy of the Mysterious Etruscans - Hill Towns, Tombs and Temple
Feb 26, 2008
The Etruscans – rulers of Italy for centuries before the Romans - remain mysterious in many ways. The Emperor Claudius wrote a book about them – but it was lost; and though they left many tombs and fine works of art, until recently very little was known of their language.
The heartlands of the Etruscans are also mysterious. You can see remains of their work in Fiesole, just a few kilometres from Florence – but the best and most complete Etruscan ruins and tombs are far from the tourist trail.
Painted Tombs Show Vivid Scenes of Etruscan Life
Tarquinia is noted for its fine Etruscan art; the city museum contains reconstructed Etruscan painted tombs, the paint still fresh and vivid. There are dark demons and death-gods, but there are also lively scenes of banqueting and chariot racing. Take a walk out of the centre of the city and you can find the original Ara – the base of a huge Etruscan temple – besides the original tombs from which some of the paintings were taken.
Nearby Tuscania is better known for its two fine Romanesque churches with strange grotesque ornament – but it too was a centre of Etruscan culture. Here, you’ll need to wander in the hills around the town to see the Etruscan tombs – always sited on the roads leading out of the town, since the dead were never buried inside the walls.
Cerveteri is probably the most famous Etruscan necropolis, but if you choose your time well you can still wander around the tumuli on your own. The round tombs here reflect the Etruscan tradition of creating circular temples and altars – something that affected the Romans when, later, they built the Pantheon and the Mausoleum of Augustus. The turf roofs of the tumuli and the trees that shade much of the area give the necropolis a natural charm.
The Etruscan Landscape
You’ll often feel close to nature at Etruscan sites and that may well reflect the way the Etruscans tried to work in harmony with nature. They told the future using the flight of birds, and the sound of thunder, and they were great engineers, draining the marshes of the Maremma near Orbetello. (Rome’s marshes, too, were first drained by the Etruscans.) The city of Orbetello, in the middle of a lagoon, is still surrounded by its Etruscan walls.
Follow an Etruscan Road
Take a trip to Pitigliano and you’ll be able to walk an Etruscan road all the way to Sovana, experiencing the microclimate of the ‘vie cave’. These winding roads cut into the rock of the hillsides are often slippery with last year’s leaves – the wind never blows down here; the walls of the roads are moist, and trees shade and cool the way. On the plateau above, the road is clear to follow – the ruts of cart tracks from fifteen hundred years ago are carved in the limestone.
The remains of the Etruscan city of Veii, at Isola Farnese near Rome, offer a view of an amazing Etruscan tunnel cut in the rock, known as the ‘Ponte Sodo’ - again in a charming natural environment. More tunnels can be visited in Chiusi, where a three-layered drainage system under the city has now been excavated and can be visited with a guided tour under the name of ‘Porsenna’s labyrinth’.
The Etruscans - Founders of Rome
Many of the Etruscan towns and cities have fine museums with many Etruscan artefacts. But the tomb robbers were already active in the eighteenth century, and many of the best works of art were removed to Rome. The Villa Giulia is one of the world’s greatest collections of Etruscan art, with masterpieces such as the Apollo of Veii and the famous ‘bride and bridegroom’ sarcophagus from Cerveteri. So even if you miss the remote landscapes and quiet byways of the Etruscan countryside, you can still get to see something of the Etruscans’ culture.
And if you then make your way along the Tiber to the Ponte Rotto, you can see the outlet of the Cloaca Maxima – the great sewer which drained the marshes here. It was the Etruscans, with their formidable engineering, who made this area habitable – and laid the foundations for the greatness of Rome.
