Florence 2011: Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Rome 2.26-2.27

On Saturday, we took a day trip to two ancient Etruscan cities to explore tombs with my Etruscans and Romans class. Unfortunately, the bus driver got lost, resulting in the cancellation of the third place we were supposed to go and turning the 3 hour ride into 4 hours. It really didn't even matter though because the two places we were able to see were amazing!

Tarquinia

This shows how high up we were - it was incredibly windy.

The tombs in Tarquinia were built up to look like little houses, but the actual tomb was underground. They were very plain inside, but had intricate frescos that resembled ancient egyptian drawing.

Cerveteri

This was easily my favorite of the two places we visited - kind of secret garden-esque. Our teacher lectured for a little and then let us loose to explore and climb. These tombs were really amazing - instead of being built up from the ground, they were carved out. So, the top of the tombs are where the ground used to be, and the Etruscans carved these tombs out of the solid bedrock. Some of them even look like they were built with separate blocks of stone, but this was done solely for looks.

Tons of cats everywhere!

These tombs went straight underground.

This is the inside of one - they carved beds for the bodies to sit! Some of them were very intricately carved, with pillows, pets, and hanging tools that could come in handy in the next world.

Lisa and me at the entrance to one of the tombs

I climbed on top of one of the biggest tombs!

From above

127 minutes! (not hours) I got my finger stuck in a hole of one of the tombs and had to cut it off.

Amazing tree

Carla inspires us to hug trees

Rome

After Cerveteri, I went to Rome with Lisa and her parents just for a little while. When we got there, we had dinner and then went to the Trevi Fountain and threw in a coin!