The tale of five cities

So much time has passed! So many things have happened!

Let's see, where did I leave off... ah, yes. Right before my trip to five Etruscan cities. The trip that, in all honesty, may have changed my life by giving me an interest in the Etruscans as a field of study.

Since I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, the trip was for my Etruscan and Roman Art and Archaeology course, which is my favorite course, and two of my better friends here are in it. The professor is also incredible, knowledgable and interesting to listen to, which is a requirement for me to like the course. The presence of all these things meant that it was bound to be a good trip from the start.

The trip started at seven thirty in the morning on Friday, when we boarded the bus and took off for Chiusi. In Chiusi, our first stop was at the Etruscan museum in town, which has a fantastic collection of the type of artifacts found at Chiusi, some of which are found only in Chiusi, like funerary urns made a certain way, or sculptures made from pietra fetida, an Italian rock that has sulphur in it and reeks when it gets wet or is scratched, and smells faintly bad when dry and in a museum. The artifacts in the museum were interesting if not extraordinarily so, and it was a great start to the trip.

Next in Chiusi we went into the tunnels. The Etruscans who lived in Chiusi 2500 years ago realized that the ground they lived on made a perfect water filter, so they dug channels into the ground and collected potable rainwater that had been filtered down through the layers. The tunnels are now open to the public -- for a fee -- so we headed down. At the present time, the tunnels end in what used to be a holding tank for water for the Roman fire brigade. From underground, we climbed up into a very tall tower and saw Tuscany and Umbria stretched out before us. It was beautiful and stunning; no matter how many beautiful views I see, I'm always struck by each and every one.

That ended our time in Chiusi, so we boarded the bus again for Orvieto. Orvieto was built on top of a cliff, and we went into another museum there, which I found to be less memorable than any other museum, but then we sequestered a public bus -- something you could never do in America -- to take us down out of the city to the Crocifisso del Tufo. What is the Crocifisso del Tufo, you ask? Well, let me tell you. The Etruscans are very well known because they buried their dead in necropolises, whose layout mirrored that of the city for the living. These necropolises' layout and construction varies by site and time period, but they are how we know most of what we know about the Etruscans. (The Etruscans, for anyone who knows absolutely nothing, are a Greek- and Roman-influenced culture that lived on the Italian peninsula from about 800 - 80 BCE.) The Crocifisso del Tufo was revolutionary because it was laid out along the cardinal directions, and shows an understanding of city planning that wasn't present before. We clambered among the ruins and into tombs where dead people once laid and touched writing that had been carved 2500 years ago and saw first-hand what we had been learning about in class since the start of the semester. We boarded the bus and went off to Tarquinia, where we were staying the night.

One of the most memorable things of the trip was dinner. For dinner, we went as a group to a one of the best restaurants in Tarquinia, one that our professor has been to so many times the people there know him. I had yet to have a good birthday dinner, so I was looking forward to indulging in really good seafood, as Tarquinia is right on the ocean. I ordered the "Frittura al mare miste," which translates to fried seafood, and was expecting what I'd get in America if I ordered the same thing: nondescript seafood covered in batter and fried to the same brown coat. No. I got whole fish, whole shrimp, and little octopi legs and rings, lightly fried until they were perfectly flaky, with all the bones intact and with all the legs intact. It basically looked like a tide pool leapt into the fryer and onto my plate. They were delicious. Add to that the two bottles of wine that our professor bought for each table, the appetizer my friend Lisa and I split of shrimp and artichoke, and the dessert of almond cake, and you have one very full, very happy girl.

In the morning it was time for another museum; the Etruscan museum in Tarquinia, which was very big and had a lot of very cool things but nothing spectacular to people who don't have more than a passing interest in the Etruscans. Then it was off to the necropolis of Tarquinia, which is built on a cliff and is thought to have more than 6000 tombs. They've all been dug into the ground and are some of the most beautifully frescoed Etruscan tombs in existence, but they're unfortunately shut off from the entrance with Plexiglass so they won't deteriorate any more, which means you can't walk around in the tombs or even see them very well. Still, the images in those tombs are some of the ones that are referenced whenever Etruscan art comes up, so they were definitely worth a visit.

Fourth city! We're almost done. The fourth city was Ceveteri, which was incredible. At the necropolis in Ceveteri, the Etruscans started on top of a layer of bedrock and carved a city of the dead down into it. The necropolis itself is open to the public and the tombs are carved into rock, and you need a flashlight in order to see anything. It's incredible. I felt so silly for being so excited about "exploring" tombs with my flashlight but really, the necropolis is so big that Lisa and I wandered off and didn't see anyone, and it was like we were alone in the necropolis exploring things. It was fantastic. I could go on about it for hours but I'm sure you'd all be bored.

Last city! Now we're really almost done! We hopped back on the bus and headed over to Norchia, which, our professor tells us, is "a very mysterious place." If I remember correctly, the inhabitants of Norchia abandoned the living city for no apparent reason, but of course, we went to see the necropolis. The necropolis here is built into the side of a cliff in the middle of nowhere -- we got dropped off in a parking lot and walked for fifteen minutes to get to a cliff, then climbed down the cliff to the necropolis ruins. On the way, our professor pointed out the ruins of a 12th century monastary on the cliff on the opposite side, and we ended up hiking over there to see them as well. Then back down to the valley floor and back up to the Norchia necropolis, which was cordoned off by some waist-height fences. Our professor said to us, "All right, have fun... I think the best place to hop the fence is over there."

We clambered about the ruins ourselves and it was incredible. This girl Jen and I went down into a tomb and discovered that it had nine sarcophagi in it, and we spent a good fifteen minutes trying to reach something we thought could have been a bone in one of them; we propped a lid against my back and I stretched out full length to get it after wedging myself in a corner. It turned out to be wood but that didn't matter at all. When I came out of the tomb I was grimy and sweaty and a little bit bloody and I don't know that I'd ever felt more accomplished or happier with anything I've done that's even remotely related to archaeology. It was fantastic. Sarah teases me a little bit for getting slightly spiritual about these sort of experiences so I won't go on for long, but let me just say that somehow, being in those types of places, thinking about the people who were there 2500 years before I stepped on the ground, just makes me marvel. It's so incredible for me to think about.

Finally, I've finished the field trip! Now a quick preview of upcoming entries: A brief summary of midterm exams followed by my first few days of spring break in Lyon, France, with my friend Camille. (It's been fantastic!) Unfortunately, I forgot to get a universal charger before I left Italy, which means that although I have my computer with me, it is out of batteries and I have no way to charge it. I've been stealing Cam's computer periodically to check my email and other things I need, but we're going tomorrow to find a transformer, so hopefully I'll be set. If not... well, Sarah has one, so I'll be up and running by Thursday evening at the latest. This also means I have no phone, because I don't want to wear out the batteries if I have no way of charging them for the next four days. Here's hoping we find a universal transformer!