Heading to Vetulonia

 

Ciao!

Up this morning to a beautiful and sunny day, with just a hint of haze in the valley below.

Breakfast again at 8 am and this time we hung out a bit longer at the hotel, realizing that most archaeological museums or indeed sites, don’t open very year.  Out about 9:15 am and heading to Vetulonia.

Ancient Vetulonia ... with poppies!

Etruscan road and houses

They did do nice walls!

Now that's a jar!

And they did do some nice things in gold ...

Ancient tomb remains

View into the valley

Ancient tomb with long entrance

Reconstructed central beam

Etruscan ceiling of tomb

Yet another tomb!

At the door of ancient tomb

Fresco in the Cathedral in Massa

Baptism font in Cathedral

Veggie appetizer!

R's pici

My ravioli

Beautiful sunset!

Vetulonia was one of the biggest Etruscan cities in existence, before it was taken over/absorbed by Rome.  But, what was interesting is that it virtually disappeared for a very long period of time.  Then, in the late 1800’s, a local doctor who was very interested in the Etruscans, set out to look for it.  Rather in the style of the amateur archaeologist Schlieman finding Troy based on his readings of ancient texts, Dr. Falchi gathered all of his clues together and set out in the Tuscan Maremma to find it.  And he did!  

What remains of Vetulonia include a small residential section, a great museum named after the finder, as well as several excavated and open tombs in the countryside.  All in all, a very interesting place to visit.

We first came across the remains of the residential area as we drove up the hill toward town.  Vetulonia, in Etruscan times, faced the town of Roselle (where we were yesterday in the rain) across the plain, and where the city of Grosseto now is, was a large salt water lake between the two cities.  This promoted competition between the two places, but also provided for fairly easy transport between them.  Apparently Vetulonia specialized in gold!  (Always a fun thing!)

It is very interesting to look at ruins and be able to identify what is Roman construction and what is the original Etruscan.  (My belief is that the Romans did a better job with laying their rocks down for smoother roads, but the Etruscans did great primary building blocks.)

From the ruins, we next headed into town and right to the museum.  And, unlike most museums in the area, everything was free, which was nice. In this case, it looks like there is a major overhaul happening – lots of sawing and pounding, but the majority of the work was going on around the two floors on which the exhibits were displayed, and we were able to walk around and spend as much time as we wanted looking at things.  They did indeed have a fair amount of gold on display.  It was from one of the tombs in the countryside that my favorite artifact of yesterday came – the lady in two pieces.

From the museum, we then headed along the “tombe trail” if I may so call it, and there were several excellent examples of tholos tombs.  The first one we stopped at was actually two floors high, with a huge supporting column inside.  From what we can make out, the corbelled roof was missing stones from the very top, but it has been closed up and redone beautifully.  Very impressive tomb!  The second tomb had a very long tholos entrance with several side rooms facing each other.  It also had the huge central column, but this was actually rebuilt, and the stones did not look like the originals.  Again, the top of the tomb had been repaired and was closed off from the outside.  

The final tomb that we wanted to see (Diavolo I) turns out to have been moved to the Florence Etruscan museum, which means we will have to get there on a Saturday morning, as that is the only time in which it is open.  Oh well, shouldn’t be more than thousands of people wanting to head into Florence on a Saturday morning!  We will definitely have to see what times train start from Pisa!

After this, we decided to take a leisurely drive back to Massa Marittima, as I definitely want to get some photos of the Duomo here, and it closes about 6 in the evening.  We did manage nice naps on a spectacular afternoon!  More later!

m

xxx

Back from my jaunt up the hill to visit the Duomo on this lovely afternoon!  (For the record, I did ask Robert if he wanted to come with me, but he declined. His statement basically was that he will walk up that hill for food, but nothing less … and he doesn’t like gelato!! Oh well!)  It is a cathedral, and Mother Teresa spoke to the towns people in 1991.  Really lazy afternoon in town, although something is happening at the church, as people are putting large glass candleholders on the steps up to the church (Ascension Thursday, 40 days after Easter).  It will be interesting to see if something special happens there tonight, when we are there.  We are still deciding where to go to dinner, and R is seriously thinking about the place we went the first night and had such great food.  As far as I’m concerned, I could have the entire veggie appetizer myself, as it was wonderful … and a glass of wine, of course!  So … more later when we have returned from dinner!

Back from dinner!  Everything is getting ready for the celebration for the Ascension and the start of Pentecost.  Candles everywhere, waiting to be lit.

We went to Prosciutto e Pepone again, and yet again had a fabulous meal!  Rand I shared their vegetarian starter, and it was even better than the first time.  Then, I had their ravioli stuffed with ricotta and sage and R had their Pici (a thick, noodle pasta) with cheese and black pepper sauce.  He won.  His pici was fabulous.  Hard to describe, but delicious!  We had a white wine of the region along with it – and will be sorry to leave Massa tomorrow.  We will be heading to Montepulciano and an apartment for a week!  So! More tomorrow!

m

xxx

And then it rained!

Ciao!

Wow!  For much of the time that we have been traveling in Italy, there have been thunderstorm warnings when we have checked the weather report most days.  And, with the exception of a few drops last night, and some rain after we’d gone to bed the night before, nothing has happened!  And then – today –  it rained!  Boy! Did it rain!

Heading to Roselle

Historic center of Grosseto

Grosseto Duomo

Loved the sea creatures

Model of ancient Etruscan temple

My favorite artifact for today!

Made it into Roselle; these are Roman baths

Up an ancient Roman road!

I thought the Roman sewer was appropriate

Etruscan remains of village

Lovely mosaics (Roman)

Beautiful cistern; again, Roman

Me under protective (but metal!) cover

Our dinner restaurant's "wine list!"

R's mussels

My bresaola salad

My steak with truffle sauce

R's steak with green pepper sauce!

However, to start with the beginning.  We were up this morning about 6 am and ready to head to breakfast by 8.  Robert is having a rather hard time of it, as there really isn’t a hot breakfast at all – no eggs or bacon or sausage or even good fruit to choose from.  He did mention this morning in passing that sometime today we needed to get to the grocery store so that we could get some fruit to eat.  

We had decided today to head to Vetulonia, Grosseto and Roselle, but not necessarily in that order.  On line, there was a website saying that the Roselle archaeological park opened at 8:30 in the morning, and closed at sundown, whenever that was.  So, being ready to go by 8:20 am off we went to Roselle.  Now first of all, I must mention Italian street sign painters.  We have found over the years that there are very often lots of signage when one is looking for something.  The problem is that one gets sucked in to believing the signs really do lead somewhere.  I cannot count the times that we have attempted to following signage that for whatever reason, suddenly stops appearing, and we are left totally in the lurch.  I did have a Swiss friend once say that when that happens, one should go “right” but I wasn’t really happy with that piece of advice.

So … Roselle Archaeological Park– great signage, and my own personal favorite was the one that not only indicated the direction to the park but indicated that one would reach it in 2 kms!

Ha!  To say it was farther than 2 kms is like saying the Pacific Ocean is within walking distance of Tucson!  Entirely UNTRUE!  At any rate, after driving and driving and driving (just one more little bit before I turn around…), there it was!  Unique!  However, what was really frustrating to read that not only did the place not open at 8:30 am, but it didn’t open until 10:15am!  UGH! Small consolation that there was also a German couple there with us, who had also read the same website…So … what to do?

As it was only 9:30 am and we didn’t want to hang around for 45 minutes, we decided to go to Grossetofirst and find their museum.  And here is where I have to apologize to Grosseto!  I had read on several websites and in several books that Grosseto is a highly industrialized location with not much charm, and that the best thing one could do with Grossetois to leave it!  Well, I’m here to tell you, that ain’t true!  Grosseto was actually quite lovely, with some beautiful houses and a really thick wall around their old city center!  They also provide something that is usually hard to find in historic city centers – parking!  We were able to park the car, and walk through a very nice playground, and through a big gate into the historic part of the city!  We dropped into the Duomo but mass was going on, so weren’t really able to see much.  Something was also happening in the main piazza as well – lots and lots and lots of elementary school children, with what looked like identical hats to identify the various groups, and a gal with a microphone on a small stage screaming at them – or at somebody!  Not sure what that was about, but something big having to do with recycling was definitely going on.

While the city center isn’t that large, we ran out of Archaeological Museo signage well short of the museum.  Robert went into one shop to inquire and came out with a man who told us - in Italian - that he would take us to it .  The only problem was, he took us to the Natural Science Museum and you know what?  That’s an entirely different place from archaeology!  I’m sure his heart was in the right place.

Finally found the museum, and it was excellent.  The ground floor contained the finds from the Roselle excavation, starting from Neolithic times and progressing through Etruscan, Roman and then medieval times, when the city was abandoned.  The second floor contained artifacts from places all over the Marittema, again, chronologically catalogued.

We basically again had the place to ourselves, except for one man who was lecturing several older people in Italian, but they were pretty stationary at the time.  My favorite piece today was a wonderful carving of a woman from Etruscan times.  I think she’s quite lovely!  

When we had finished at the museum and walked outside, it turns out that it had rained – hard – and there was water everywhere – and we hadn’t heard a thing!  Robert did point out that I had excellent timing, as we were nice and dry – as were our umbrellas in the back seat of the car!

Back then to pick up the car and head out of Grossetoand back to Roselle– hoping that by noon they would now be open!  And they were!  The sky looked rather threatening by this time, so we definitely took our umbrellas with us for the walk to the excavation sites. 

Well, to say it started to rain is rather an understatement.  We walked up the long hill towards the residential part of Roselle on the path rather than the stone Roman road – truly, those stones are trouble in dry weather; can’t imagine trying to walk up hill on them in the rain.  For the first 10 minutes or so, the rain was off and on again and we were able to identify Etruscan parts of the excavation.  We made the decision, considering the weather, to skip the Roman and Hellenistic parts of the dig to focus on the Etruscan parts and ended up at the top of a big hill that had been used in Etruscan times as an artisan’s quarter, complete with kilns.  So, at last, we found an Etruscan village, not a necropolis.  Apparently, the Etruscans – even the aristocracy – built their houses using mud brick that only rarely survived to the present.  The aristocratic tombs, however, were of stone and that is what we have been seeing for the past weeks.

That was went the water starting to pour, along with lightning and thunder!  It was quite a show, but as we had taken refuge under a metal and corrugated translucent fiberglass material cover and were sitting on the wooden walking boards, Robert was more than a little uncomfortable. So, when the rain slacked off just a bit, we high tailed it back to the visitor center for protection.  And then it REALLY started to rain!  R took a photograph of the water bouncing on the ground and puddling; it was amazing!  We Tucsonans don’t get all that much chance of big rain, and this one was truly something!  We decided at this point, that once we could safely and successfully make it back to our vehicle, we would head back to the hotel.

So, that’s what we did, with a brief visit to the local COOP (grocery store) so that we could buy fruit for Robert!  (Who is even now happily munching on a basket of cherries, his favorite!)  I had thought that maybe it wouldn’t have rained or be raining in Massa, but that wasn’t true!  In fact, we just made it to the hotel’s parking lot when the heavens opened up yet again.  Wow! Great day!

As we didn’t really have a chance for lunch, we are planning on (hopefully) going into town tonight for a good dinner (although my pizza last night was wonderful!)  So, as I always say,

more later!

m

xxx

Just back from a wonderful dinner!  We walked up and into town about 6:30-ish, and found a restaurant that had bresaola, which I absolutely love.  So, in we went to Eredi Vanni.  Quite a lovely interior, and we had a great table for four in the front room.  Besides the sparkling water, we wanted a bottle of wine, and asked for the wine list. Well, believe it or not, their wine list is their back wall – lots of bottles of wine, and you just look until you see something you like!  So, we did, and got a wonderful Tuscany cabernet sauvignon.  To go with that, I had their bresaola salad with arugula and parmesan.  R  had their sautéed mussels with croutons.  I have to admit that R’s mussels smelled so incredibly good – I can’t remember the last time I smelled something that good; he said they were great!  For mains, we both got filets – mine had a black truffle sauce, and R’s had a green pepper corn sauce.  R  also ordered a serving of roasted potatoes, which we split.  Well … everything was fabulous.  The steaks were perfectly cooked rare, and we both loved them – as well as each other’s, which we tried.  R says he would rather the steaks not be completely covered in sauce as they don’t photograph well, but truly, they were wonderful.  My steak was so large that I couldn’t finish it, but Rcleaned up his plate completely!  Wonderful, wonderful meal!  I hate to admit that after all that, I did go next door to my gelato place, and enjoyed every bite!  Will definitely be back on the diet when we get home, that’s for sure!

More tomorrow!

m

xxx

Heading on down to the beach!

 

Ciao!

Up this morning about 6, but breakfast wasn’t served until 8, so we did have some time to kill.

It had actually sprinkled last night as we were falling asleep, and rained again sometime during the night, but we woke up to a much less cloudy but gray day.  I have come to the decision that this room is probably one of the smallest in which we have ever stayed, and to make matters worse there is quite literally NO place to put things!  So, everything looks very messy, but not much can be done about it!  There is one long counter where we’ve got the computer and the television, but it is rather narrow, and not very accommodating. 

One of the tumulus type of tombs

A "shrine" type

Another tumulus

Looking out over the bay

Sarcophagus tombs

Temple type

Huge stone sheets for the roof

Interior of a tomb, with carved "legs"

Piombino walls

Elba!

Etruscan painted temple decoration

Ship-wrecked coins brought to life!

Piombino bay

Wonderful carving in Massa museum!

Town square in the evening!

Waiting for pizza!

It was excellent!

Lovely small city!

Caught!  Yum!!!

We also have to find room for bathroom “stuff” but as there are very low and tiny night stands, things do get into interesting places.  The shower is also interesting, as it is squeezed in between the bathroom sink and toilet, and the toilet is immediately opposite that ever-useful creation called the bidet, there is not much room to move around in.  Fortunately, the balcony is nice and the view is great, and the bed is comfortable.  

Down for breakfast at 8 am and ran into an interesting assortment of fellows who all seem to be here with yoga mats and bicycles.  We’re thinking they are probably Scandinavian of some sort, but there are vehicles here from Switzerland and Austrian so hard to tell.  Other than the cyclists, we didn’t run into any other guests.  The breakfast was okay, except for the fact that R’s choice of coffee from the noisy machine, ended up giving him something like a third of a cup.  I suggested he run some hot water into it, and he tried that with a second cup, that that was too weak.  So … one is too strong, and the other is too weak – we’ll see what he decides to do tomorrow morning.

Out the door about 9 am and heading to Populonia, the Etruscan city built at the waterfront.

One thing that we’ve discovered about the Etruscans is that they were really very strong individualists, with their loyalties really to their family and city and not to any kind of Etruscan nation.  We had read in the past about the Etruscan League which was apparently made up of twelve Etruscan cities.  The thing that is interesting is that the cities kept changing.  There appeared to always be twelve of them, just not always the same ones.  Additionally, we have read that on more than one occasion, one or the other of the Etruscan cities has appealed to another Etruscan city (also member of the “league”) for assistance with overcoming some enemy – usually the Romans.  However, just because they were both members of the same league, was no guarantee that another city would come to the rescue of the other, and on more than one occasion, an Etruscan city was left to fend (usually unsuccessfully) for itself.  We found that very odd somehow but I guess it goes with the “family/city” first, as the Etruscans never appeared to be a nation in any way.

We arrived at the Populonia Archaeological Park and walked up the long walkway to the visitor center.  There, some very nice folks explained about the three different sites we could visit.  There were already two elementary school groups in the area, but once we started out, we quite literally had the place to ourselves!  Until now, we hadn’t realized just how many different types of Etruscan tombs there were!  We had visited shaft tombs and tumuli in the past.  Shaft tombs are basically shafts dug into the ground, and then funerary urns were placed one on top of the other.  The tumuli were large stone buildings, some dug into the earth or some just set on top of the earth with doors and entrance passages.  The dead could then be placed on a shelf for burial or their ashes deposited in an urn with dirt and debris then mounded on top of the tumulus.  (Actually, here in Populonia, the area contained many different types of mines – lead, silver, copper – and the slag was used to try and successfully hide a tomb.  In one, instance it appears that at least one tumulus collapsed as a result of the weight of the slag.)  

Here, though, were new types – both the “Temple” tomb, as well as individual sarcophagus tombs. The Temple tombs were built on rock platforms to look like small temples, with a rock roof on top.  Very interesting!

Having visited the variety of tomb sites (and me banging my head on one very low entrance passage), we decided to head into Piombino (today’s name for the city) to visit their museum.  As it was past lunch time, we stopped at McDonald’s for a quick sandwich, and then followed signage to the museum.  

Piombinois a lovely city, and it’s also the port city for ships to Elba, which can be seen very clearly across the water (6 miles away).  It takes about 40 minutes on one of the ferries to get there, and it looks like they do have a lot of cross-water traffic.  Elba was (and probably still is!) a mining area where the Etruscans would gather raw material that would then be shipped back to Populonia for smelting and working into finished goods. The museum was right on the bay, which was really beautiful.  There were even some people sunbathing on the rocks below, although we didn’t see anyone brave enough to go into the water.  

We had the museum quite literally to ourselves, and fortunately, when we were looking through the collection, lights in the next gallery would be springing on automatically in front of us.  Included in the collection were artifacts discovered from an ancient ship wreck and successfully brought to light just a couple of years ago.  My favorite was a huge stack of coins now all welded together; seriously, we’re talking a lot of coins here.  They are now kept in a climate-controlled water environment to preserve them as they were found.  Incredibly interesting!  (We had first come across underwater archaeology in Turkey, where Texas A & M – the first school to develop underwater archaeology as a major! – had explored a ship wreck)

By now it was almost 2 pm on a very warm and balmy day – so instead of heading to Vetuloniawe decided to head back to Massa and take naps instead!  Brilliant use of time!  

Up an hour or so later, and are now thinking of heading up the hill into town and the Massa Marittima museum!

More later!

m

xxx

Just back from our walk up the hill to the center of town!  We first went to the Archaeological Museum, which was interesting.  It had a very large section on Neolithic finds from the area. We saw several things – one that we are going to look for in Florence, as well as a stele that had hands and a face on it!  Definitely my very favorite thing today!  The Etruscan portion of the museum wasn’t great, but the building itself was interesting and we enjoyed it.

From the museum, we decided that a pizza was sounding good for dinner.  We had had so much food last night, that we thought a break would be nice. So, we found 3 Arches restaurant on the main piazza, where there were several tables already occupied by non-smoking folks, and ordered our dinner. A glass of Prosecco for me, and a glass of local red for R, sparkling water and a pizza with tomato, mozzarella, prosciutto and porcini mushrooms.  It was GREAT, and we very much enjoyed it.  Also, for once, we ordered one pizza to share, (it is usual in Italy for each person to order their own pizza) and it was perfect!  Just enough!  We then walked through the town – it is really a lovely place! And I got a great gelato for dessert!  What a way to end the day!  By this time, it had started to sprinkle, just like last night, so we headed back to the hotel.  Not really wet or anything, just sprinkled on and coolish.  We are now in for the night!

Lots of love,

m

xxx