Etruscans were in Rome before the Romans

Our 41st anniversary was Jan 7th so we decided to take a couple of days to celebrate and check out the area just an hour and a half Northeast of Rome which is loaded with Etruscan history.  This little town of Tuscania has 2 churches dating to the 4 & 5 century BC!

We stayed in the town of Tarquinia which is just a bit inland from the sea.  Our apartment was located in the old town and was actually IN one of the towers.  Tom is just walking towards the apartment and it's just by this old church (on his left)  The name of the hotel/apartment was Palazzo Castelleschi.  It was extraordinary b/c it was full of the treasures that was found in the tower when they renovated.  It was like sleeping in a museum...but comfortable and nice as well.  The town had something like 30 towers.

Many little piazzas like this one sprinkled throughout the town.  The well is just next to an old Etruscan villa (which now is a museum)

Just outside the town, but still walking distance is a Necropolis.  Inside the tombs were some stunning frescoes.  Again, about 600 BC.  

It's January, so a little rain would be expected.  The walled city, the towers, the necropolis made this town a great place to base ourselves.

The Etruscan Museum, once a villa.  The showpiece was the 'winged horses' shown below.

This stop was in the town of Cerveteri.  Here is the Necropoli della Banditaccia.  Very unusual burial ground.  These tombs were carved from the rock,  all by hand!  It was an entire 'village' and it reminded me a bit of Ankor Wat again, but of course much more tame.

These tombs didn't have the paintings/frescoes but they were in better shape as far as the inside 'furniture' was concerned.  I learned that if the bedstead had a headboard, then it was a woman that was buried there.  This one had two women.  The next room held the pottery, jewelry, etc that would make their life comfortable for the next life...

Here is a better picture of one of the tombs.  This one was particularly large.  Can you imagine carving this out by hand with a pick ax?  Of course it was only the most wealthy that were buried here.  You were able to go inside via a staircase (slighting visible on the right side of the picture)  There were 100s of these tombs to make up a sort of village.  20 of those you could enter.

On the way home we stopped at the seaside at Santa Severa.  The beach was sandy but not too large.  This is only about 45 minutes from Rome.

This is Villa Guilia in Rome and also part of Etruscan history.  We toured the museum for free on our anniversary day (all museums are free on the 1st Sunday of the month)!  This is actually walking distance from our apartment.  So now we feel educated about Etruscan history, toured all the sites and museums and necropolis'.