Tarquinia- 45 years later

Morning came awfully early this morning – and in this funky hotel we are staying in, breakfast was several blocks away – but worth it once we got to it.  Afterward, Frank went back to the hotel room to take a nap; I visited the Etruscan museum a short distance away.

Etruscan art is truly magnificent.  What we have is all from their tombs, of course, and what we know of them is that they decorated their tombs with scenes of dancing, feasting, eroticism – all in all, not a bad way to go.  And the necropolis is on a hill outside of the modern town, with an incredible view – and reminded Frank of the Helman family cemetery in Pennsylvania, Brush Creek.  In both cases, not a bad place to spend eternity.

And figures on the sarcophagi are “real” portraits – individuals, warts and all (literally).  And the horses shown here, which came from a pediment, are remarkable not only in their detail, but traces of 2500 year old paint still shows on them.  Note that the horse which is in front is painted a lighter color – this helps with the perspective.  And we think perspective is an invention of the Renaissance.  Wrong again.

I was here 45 years ago, early on during my junior year abroad semester in Rome.  I loved the Etruscan necropolis – in fact, I still have  pictures from Tarquinia’s Leopard tomb hanging in the guest room.  That said, I didn’t remember/recognize the museum, the necropolis, anything – the museum has been around that long, according to the signage, but I think it has greatly changed.  Either that or my memory … never mind.

After the town, the museum, the necropolis, we set off for Civitavecchia.  The goal was to unload our gear at the dock and then proceed to the Hertz rental place to get rid of the car, but once again the satnav failed us.  We couldn’t find our way to the dock, despite phone calls, checking the website, asked directions, everything.  Finally we gave up and took the car to Hertz. There, our luck changed, and a cab came by and offered to take us to the pier for an exorbitant price that we were happy to pay.

So now we are in the lap of Viking customer service, with someone else worrying about the navigation and the details.  The week on our own was wonderful, but having someone else take care of us this week will be wonderful as well, just different.

Stay tuned …