SOUTHERN ETRURIA: FROM ROME TO ORVIETO 24-31 October 2016 Day-by-Day Program
Elizabeth Bartman, archaeologist, and Maureen Fant, food writer, offer an exciting new tour of the territory between Cerveteri (about 30 miles north of Rome) and Orvieto (once in Lazio and today just inside Umbria).
Imagine a land of volcanic lakes, sandy beaches, rugged hills, thermal springs, Roman roads, and medieval hill towns. Its olive oil, chestnuts, hazelnuts, freshwater fish, mushrooms, game, pork products, lamb, and sheep cheeses are among the best you’ll find anywhere in Italy. The Etruscans left their mark, but so did other pre-Roman peoples, like the forgotten Faliscans. This is southernmost Etruria, the land that lies between Rome and the Tuscan and Umbrian borders, corresponding roughly to the area known as Tuscia.
If you’ve done the usual day trips from Rome, this tour will take you to places that were a little too far or hard to reach. If you’ve graduated from the tourist destinations of Tuscany and Umbria, this tour offers a very different reality.
Our itinerary offers plenty of archaeo-culinary interest in the cities and cemeteries of the Etruscan peoples who predated the Romans here as well as the medieval towns that inherited the ancient legacy. That legacy continues today, remarkably unspoiled.
In October, when we visit, the wild beauty of the natural landscape will be enhanced by the fall colors, while an already delicious local cuisine will be even more mouth-watering thanks to such autumnal delicacies as chestnuts, black truffles, wild mushrooms, game, and newly pressed extra virgin olive oil (and we’ll visit an oil producer). We’ll eat in a mix of traditional trattorias, agriturismi, and more modern or creative establishments. As a rule, we’ll favor the traditional cooking of the area—the dishes that rarely make it onto the trattoria menus of the capital, such as the poor-folk’s soup known as acquacotta (today greatly enriched).
“Southern Etruria: From Rome to Orvieto” is scheduled to follow “A Taste of Ancient Rome” (Oct. 17–24) and will run from Monday, October 24, to Monday, October 31. It can be booked either alone or as an add-on. There is a special price for both tours booked together. All participants in this tour will receive as our gift a copy of the book Popes, Peasants, and Shepherds: Recipes and Lore from Rome and Lazio by Oretta Zanini De Vita and translated by Maureen (University of California Press 2010).
Note: Logistics, pending permissions, and new discoveries may necessitate some changes to this itinerary, but rest assured, plan B, if needed, will be no less interesting or delicious.
B = Breakfast included L = Lunch included D = Dinner included S = Snack or tasting included
MONDAY: WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION (ROME) Participants in “A Taste of Ancient Rome” the preceding week will be able to sleep in, relax, shop, or do some solo touring that we can help arrange for the day. New arrivals will be met at Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO) or one of the Rome railroad stations and transferred to a four- or five-star hotel in the heart of Rome’s historic center for our one-night stay. We’ll give you a few hours to freshen up, rest, or explore on your own. We’ll all gather in the early evening for aperitivi and an illustrated preview of the upcoming week. That will be followed by an easy, early dinner at an excellent trattoria near the hotel. (D)
TUESDAY: ORVIETO This morning we’ll drive straight to Orvieto, 90 minutes north of Rome and our base for three nights. Set dramatically on La Rupe, a tufa outcropping that rises abruptly from the surrounding countryside, the town is known for for its compact, walkable medieval center and splendid Gothic duomo with frescoes by Luca Signorelli. It gives its name to Orvieto Classico DOC, a straw-colored white wine, and is also known for its traditional and modern crafts—ceramics, crochet lace, wood carving—and even its innovative transport system. But Orvieto also has an earlier Etruscan history whose vestiges can be seen in the large cemetery below the modern town as well as in its museums. We’ll devote the entire day to exploring Orvieto on foot and sampling its cuisine (think wild boar and black truffles). We’ll stay in a traditional-style hotel a few steps from the Duomo. (B, L, D)
WEDNESDAY: VITERBO We’ll travel about an hour to spend most of today in Viterbo, one of Lazio’s five provincial capitals, a medieval city with a very different look and feel behind its majestic defensive walls. Viterbo flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries. During that time it also built a magnificent palace for the popes who at times ruled from Viterbo. We’ll have a medieval- inspired lunch (the food, that is—no costumes!) in a trattoria whose owners have done serious research on the subject. We’ll return to Orvieto in time for a winery visit. Evening free. (B, L, S)
THURSDAY: NORCHIA TO TUSCANIA We set off this morning to explore some of the rarely visited Etruscan rock-cut tombs of Norchia. Set in what is today an officially protected nature zone, the tombs are memorable for their good preservation and rugged beauty. Our next stop is picturesque Tuscania, a quiet town with medieval towers, Romanesque churches, and cobbled streets. After lunch we plan to visit San Giovenale, an Etruscan site (excavated by, among others, the former king of Sweden) whose well-preserved houses provide a rare glimpse of how a people who made such remarkable cities for their dead actually lived their lives. We’ll return to Orvieto in late afternoon. Evening free. (B, L)
FRIDAY: CAPRAROLA AND CIVITA CASTELLANA Our itinerary today spans the centuries. Our first stop will be the magnificent Palazzo Farnese still dominating the town of Caprarola, near the volcanic Lago di Vico, one of central Italy’s most beautiful lakes. A masterpiece of Renaissance architecture, the palace also has
2 impressive gardens whose faux-rustic features evoke antiquity. After lunch we’ll go to Civita Castellana to admire its ancient walls and duomo (with noteworthy Cosmatesque floors). The small archaeological museum, in the Renaissance fort, documents the culture of the Faliscans, an early Italic people who like the Etruscans were conquered by Rome. A short stop in Sutri, where there is a well-preserved amphitheater and a mithraeum, brings us into the Roman orbit. In the afternoon, we’ll move to our second and last hotel, adjacent to the Terme di Stigliano, where we can have a dip in the naturally heated thermal pool or a walk in the magnificent park that surrounds the baths. (B, L, D)
SATURDAY: TARQUINIA Today we head off towards the coast to visit Tarquinia and the celebrated Etruscan cemetery that lies beneath the medieval hill town. Tarquinia’s hundreds of tombs are underground and largely invisible today. Yet their nondescript architecture belies their extraordinary interiors, whose colorful painted walls depict scenes from myth and daily life. After immersing ourselves in these rare examples of ancient painting, we will enjoy a leisurely lunch. On our return to the hotel we may loop south through Civitavecchia. Amidst its unattractive modern structures, we can still admire the fort designed by Michelangelo in the early 16th century. (B, L, D)
SUNDAY: CERVETERI We cap off our week with a detour to magnificent Lake Bracciano, one of Italy’s most beautiful lakes, and possibly a visit to the imposing Renaissance Castello Odescalchi overlooking the lake. But our main destination today is Cerveteri, a very different sort of Etruscan necropolis from Tarquinia, where numerous tomb mounds, arranged as though on streets to form a true “city of the dead,” are surrounded by a picturesque wooded landscape. The tombs once encased rich burials whose contents included spectacular gold jewelry worked with the minuscule granulation whose technique has long remained elusive. Although now empty, the interiors of these still-impressive mounds evoke the spirits of their ancient occupants. The site museum, well installed in a nearby medieval castle, will give us an excellent review of the art and archaeology of this highly accomplished people. The day will end with a festive farewell lunch. (B, L)
MONDAY: DEPARTURE Individual departures to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, about an hour from the hotel, or railroad stations (about 90 minutes). (B)
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