Casual Tomb Explorations

I had about 4 days to recover from Spring Break when I was off on my next adventure-- this time with a class. My Etruscan Art and Archaeology class was going to see 5 cities, multiple necropli, and many museums on a tour of ancient Etruria. Rather than taking a million different trains we got on the smallest bus known to man and went to our first stop: the ancient city of Chiusi. Here we went through the first of many identical  museums (Etruscan pottery and fibulae all begin to look repetitive after a while) and then got to go down into ancient Etruscan tunnels that are underneath the city. It was a little claustrophobic but kind of cool to be in such an old structure. The tunnel ended in a medieval era tower which we climbed to the top for a beautiful view of Tuscany.

view from the Medieval tower in Chiusi

Etruscan sarcophagus

Next stop: Orvieto. A city built on this giant butte we had to take a bus, tram, escalator, and another bus just to get to the top! After a quick lunch break we saw a few more museums and then got to see the first necropolis of the trip. Weirdly, it was actually really beautiful. The tombs were all dug into the volcanic rock and were organized into a bunch of city blocks. Our professors 10 year old son had a great time playing "tomb tag" with us and we had free reign to go inside the tombs that weren't covered in spiderwebs.

While exploring, one group of kids saw some bones through a tiny grave opening. A brave kid climbed inside and they pulled out 6 bone legs... and no other bones. Our professor took a look and said they were old, but not Etruscan. He informed the people running the site and they were shocked that the bones were there-- clearly they weren't there in the original excavation. Creepy.

random bones?

After this we head back up to the top of the city where we climbed down a medieval well, saw the remains of an Etruscan temples, and then head off towards the next city, called Tarquinia.

We got to Tarquinia just in time to have a late dinner and pass out of exhaustion. The next morning after another complimentary breakfast (seriously, best things ever) we head to yet another museum. This one had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean and had been used as a papal palace which made it slightly more interesting. After that we went to one of the most famous Etruscan sites- the Tarquinia Necropolis. The view from this necropolis was amazingly beautiful, as was the site itself. We got to go inside some of the most famous tombs from the time period and see all the wall paintings.

View from the Tarquinia Necropolis

famous painted tombs in Tarquinia

Next stop on our whirlwind tour was the Necropolis of Cerveteri- famous for its carved (rather than painted) tombs. This was actually a really fun place to explore and I can tell that if I were ten years younger it would be my favorite place ever. We literally were climbing in and out of these giant beehive tumuli that were carved out of volcanic rock. A lot of the underground tombs were really complex with chambers and passageways and our entire class has a great time looking through all of them (although the professor's son definitely had the best time out of all of us). Here we saw the famous Tomb of the Reliefs among other ones. Exhausted, we got back on the bus and off to the last stop of the day.

fun timez in tombz

Norchia (our last stop) is literally in the middle of nowhere. We drove into the middle of nowhere and then walked about a mile and a half further into the middle of nowhere. Seriously, this place makes Hamilton, NY look like an urban setting. Once we got to the site our professor informed us that we were going to hikedown the side of a cliff, across a valley, and up the other side. OOOOKAY.

[I would like to side-note here about how our professor warned us that we would be doing hiking and climbing in and out of tombs. He suggested we not wear our nice boots or tank tops. I showed up to the train station in leggings, running shoes, and a giant crew neck sweatshirt, assuming that most people would do the same. Wrong. Almost all of the girls were wearing cute outfits with little sweaters, chiffon shirts, and cute little booties. One girl actually wore heeled sandals- the entire time, including the hike. I don't get it. I looked like a five year old on a field trip in the 90s but whatever, I was comfortable in my gear.]

abandoned church

The hike was actually worth it though because on the other side of the valley was an abandoned 11th century monastery and church. Both were completely in ruins but were beautiful, especially sitting on top of a giant valley edge in the setting sun. The hike back down was slightly easier and just when we thought we were done our professor suggested that we take the ancient Etruscan path up through the cliff tombs. He assured us it was easy and FUN and that all the students did it. Once again- OOOKAY. We were seriously rock climbing- minus the gear. We were jumping over fences, hovering over 30 foot drops into rock tombs, clambering up ancient staircases covered with slime and water, and literally hand-over-foot propelling ourselves up the side of a cliff. I have no idea how the professor wasn't having a heart attack watching us. If anyone were to fall we would have a mile and a half walk before even getting to the bus to get help. However, it turned out to be completely fine and once we got past the life-flash-before-our-eyes-moments it was fun to climb the cliff.

in the middle of nowhere

At this point we were reeeeeally ready to get home and after a 3 hour bus ride we finally arrived back in Florence. I was exhausted, covered in dirt, and completely drained but overall the weekend was really fun and I got to do a lot of things that I know I would never ever get the chance to do otherwise.