Italy: In the Path of the Etruscans

Arrive in Rome by mid-morning. After lunch on our own and some time to rest, visit the National Etruscan Museum.  Housed in the Renaissance-era Villa Giulia, this museum contains the greatest Etruscan collection in all of Italy, including the famous Sarcophagus of the Spouses, an almost life-sized terracotta funerary coffer from the late 6th century BC.  Conclude the day with a stop by the Mausoleum of Augustus, built in 28 BC. Inspired by Etruscan tomb design, it shows the influence of the Etruscans over time.  Our welcome dinner will be at an elegant local restaurant. Overnight in the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti for two nights. (D)

The Gregorian Etruscan Museum is located within the Vatican City Museums. Numerous ceramics, bronzes, gold, and silver artifacts dating from the 9th century BC to the 1st century BC can be seen within the collection, This is the time when the Etruscan cities converged into the larger structure of the Roman state.  Many of the items displayed here were found at the necropolis that we will visit during the trip, including Cerveteri and Chiusi.  After lunch on our own at the Vatican Museum café, we will have free time to visit the other museum collections before returning to the hotel.  (B/D)

Depart Rome and travel northwest to Cerveteri and the Necropoli della Banditaccia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dating back to the 9th century BC, this is the largest necropolis from the ancient Mediterranean world.  Commonly referred to as the ‘city of the dead,’ it is organized in a city-like plan. Here, streets, small squares, and neighborhoods provide archaeologists with the only surviving evidence as to how the Etruscans approached urban planning and residential architecture.

Move on to Tarquinia to enter Necropoli Monterozzi, also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Over 6,000 tombs have been dug into the rock. Some date back to the 7th century BC. As we wander among the tombs, we will note that many are adorned with stunning frescos depicting Etruscan daily life, demonstrating the wealth and power of this all-but-vanished culture.  After visiting the site and its museum, we will transfer to Viterbo and overnight for one night at Hotel Termi dei Papi, a small boutique hotel and spa. (B/L/D)

Our destination today is the delightful mountain town of Orvieto in Umbria, known as Velzna in Etruscan. It was one of the most important towns of the Etruria territory from the 9th to 3rd century BC.  In the area below Orvieto’s cliff face, archaeologists and historians have discovered what they believe to be Fanum Voltumnae, the ancient sanctuary thought to be the center of the Etruscan religion and worship. 

If available, we will meet privately with an archaeologist working at the Campo della Fiera excavations. Continue on to the Crocifisso del Tufo necropolis, where another collection of chamber tombs is laid out in a street grid pattern. Back in the town of Orvieto, we visit both the Claudio Faina Museum and the National Archaeological Museum to view the collections of grave goods and pottery found during the excavations of the surrounding area. 

We conclude the day with a stop at Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, whose façade is done in the Tuscan Gothic style and presents an imposing rose window, glittering mosaics, and elephantine bronze doors. Overnight for one night at the Hotel Palazzo Piccolomini, an elegant boutique hotel set in the historic district of Orvieto that was once a luxurious palazzo.  (B/L/D)

A one-hour drive takes us to Chiusi in Tuscany. Between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, this was one of the most important towns in the Etruscan Dodecapolis, a confederation of twelve cities. Today will be spent exploring the town’s ancient remains. Our first stop will be the Poggio Renzo Necropolis, where its most famous tombs are named for the depictions on their wall paintings. Chiusi’s National Etruscan Museum is one of the most important repositories of artifacts in Italy, and we will visit this before our lunch in town. This afternoon, enjoy a guided tour of La Città Sotterranea, an epigraphic museum with a collection of almost 300 urns and 200 grave tiles with inscriptions.

Time permitting, we will stop at the tomb of Las Porsenna, the Etruscan king known for his war against Rome. Here, we can also witness the vast labyrinth of tunnels that winds beneath the town and was once an Etruscan aqueduct. Transfer in the late afternoon to Perugia and overnight for two nights in Perugia at the 5-star Brufani Palace, built in 1884. This elegant hotel has had many illustrious guests, including the Queen Mother and Prince Albert of Monaco. (B/L/D)

Perugia, the capital city of Umbria, was another of the twelve confederate cities of Etruria. Between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, Perugia was enclosed by massive fortification walls that still stand today. There were originally seven gates into the city and the six that remain contain remnants of Etruscan monumental architecture.

Our walking tour will take us to several important sites in Perugia. We will enter the Volumnus Hypogeum, the 3rd century BC underground tomb of the wealthy Volumnus family of Etruscan nobility. It has the characteristic layout of an Etruscan-Roman home with an atrium and seven rooms and is one of the most important monuments from this ancient time. The heads of Medusa, the mythological Gorgon with coiling poisonous snakes instead of hair, are displayed throughout the hypogeum. We will go into the Sorbello Well that once supplied water to the entire city. An extraordinary feat of hydraulic engineering, the Etruscans sunk an 18-foot shaft more than 115 feet deep under the city. To support the cover over the well, two massive trusses of travertine were constructed, and they still protect the cistern more than 2,000 years later.

Umbria’s Archaeology Museum is housed in the former Dominican convent of San Domenic. The most notable artifact of the Etruscan collection is the Cippo di Perugia, a boundary stone that contains the longest Etruscan inscription ever found. The Cathedral of Saint Lorenzo was constructed over a period of 150 years, and the exterior was never completed. The interior is late Gothic with three aisles divided by octagonal pillars over crossbow vaulting, and the Chapel of San Bernardino contains Federico Barocci’s exquisite Deposition, painted in 1567-69. Dinner is on our own. (B/L)

On our drive through the beautiful Tuscan countryside, the dazzling medieval hill town of Cortona will appear high on a mountaintop. It was made famous in recent decades as it was the setting for Frances Mayes’ novel Under the Tuscan Sun. The medieval walls surrounding the town’s historic center contain imposing remnants of fortifications built by the Etruscans. As we walk through the medieval streets, stop to visit the Etruscan Academy Museum, or Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca, to view fascinating finds from nearby excavations, and the Accademia Etrusca, housed within the Palazzo Pretorio. Down the slope of the hillside is the 16th century Santa Maria Nuova Church, built to house a miraculous image of the virgin, and at the foot of the hill are found beautiful Etruscan tombs and burial mounds, now incorporated into the archaeological park of Cortona. Overnight for two nights at the Hotel San Luca. (B/L/D)

Arezzo was once one of the Etruscan Dodecapolis. Our all-day walking tour will give us views of the city’s most celebrated sites. Dominating the city is The Duomo, or Cathedral di San Donato. It was built on what was an earlier Christian church and possibly of the ancient city’s acropolis. The interior is embellished with frescoes by Aretine artists, seven stained glass windows created in 1516-1524 by Guillaume de Marcillat, and a well-known 13th-century crucifix by Cimabue. The Medici Fortress is in the form of a star with five points. It was quarried from stone from the Roman amphitheater. Santa Maria della Pieve, with its striking façade, existed as early as 1008.

Behind its Romanesque apse, our stroll along Corso Italia takes us through the Piazza Grande. This medieval square is encircled by several landmark buildings. Notably, we will see many different architectural styles, from medieval towers to the Renaissance Loggiato Vasariano, from the Gothic-Renaissance Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici to Palazzo delle Logge designed by Vasari. A poet and scholar, Petrarch was the most famous man born in Arezzo. Located just off Corso Italia is Casa del Petrarca. Reputedly built on the 16th-century remains of a medieval building, this is traditionally held to be Francesco Petrarch’s birthplace. The Capella Bacci, in the apse of the Basilica di San Francesco, showcases Piero della Francesca’s fresco of the Legend of the True Cross, one of Italian art’s greatest works. Ivan Bruschi, a wealthy antique dealer, restored the 13th-century Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo in the 1960s. Now a museum, it houses his collection including art from Etruscan, Greek, Roman, medieval and Renaissance periods. The Roman Amphitheater is a skeleton of a once important theater that held 13,000 attendees. The archaeological museum behind it houses an impressive collection of Etruscan and Roman ceramics and glassware. Dinner is on our own. (B/L)

Volterra is the very picture of a Tuscan hill town. Originally an Etruscan town, the fortification walls enclose the Parco Archeologico Enrico Fiumi. This park contains two Etruscan temples, as well as an intriguing 1st-century basin that the Romans built to collect rainwater and distribute it to citizens who lived in lower-lying areas.

We will also visit the Guarnacci Etruscan Museum housing thousands of funeral urns and many unique bronze sculptures and terracotta pieces. Recent archaeological work has uncovered a large Roman amphitheater thought to date to the 1st century AD.

After lunch we transfer to Florence, one of the most beautiful cities in all of Italy and the heart of the Italian Renaissance. By foot, we will explore the historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including Ponte Vecchio and Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (the Duomo). Overnight for two nights at Boscolo Hotel Astoria, a charming 4-star hotel located in the heart of the historic city. (B/L/D)

The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is housed in the Palazzo della Crocetta. This stunning palace was built in 1620 for Princess Maria Maddalena de’ Medici, sister of Cosimo II de’ Medici. The Etruscan collection includes some of the most valuable and unique pieces found throughout Italy. Highlights are the Chimera of Arezzo, the bronze statue of Arringatore, and the funerary statue of Mater Matuta. Continue to the 14th century Palazzo Davanti which was created by joining together several tower-houses. It represents the transition between the closed, vertical structure of the medieval tower-house and the more spacious Renaissance palazzo arranged around a central courtyard. Lunch and the afternoon are on our own to explore the cultural and architectural gems of Florence before our farewell dinner at an elegant local restaurant. (B/D)

Transfer to the airport for our flights back home. (B)