An incredible tomb and an all-around wonderful Saturday!

 

Ciao!

I know that when I posted last night, I indicated that we would be doing things in Orvieto today – the museum, the underground tour, etc. However, at some point I remembered that I had already booked R and me on a special “Saturday only” tomb tour in Sarteano, which is about an hour north of Orvieto.  So … change of plans!

Beautiful Sarteano!

My favorite urn; note arms/handles

Top of a funerary urn

Female urn on left; her son on right

Very Cycladic 

Note dice and gaming pieces!

Burial preparation altar

"Our" tomb in the middle

Val d'orcia in Tuscany!

Red-headed demon driving chariot; note fang!

Animals pulling chariot

Chariot

Son with father for funerary banquet

Three-headed snake!

Hippocampus!

Sarcophagus

Dolphins on lower trim jumping out of the water!

Bread with olive oil, and parmesan with balsamic!

R's spelt salad

My ensalada caprese

STEAK!

Roasted veggies with cheese

Roast potatoes

We had lunch yesterday so late that neither of us was wanting dinner last night.  Instead, around 9:00 pm we went downstairs to the bar for some glasses of our favorite bubbly – Prosecco.  As it turns out, the first bottle tried was flat (which I would have been fine with, as the wine still tastes good!) but the man at the desk insisted on a new bottle!  As he was having a bit of problem with the foil, I very gladly took it out of his hands and did it myself.  I LOVE opening sparkling bottles, and this one was easy!  It was lovely sitting out on the patio about 9:00 pm – and it was still light out! Such a difference from Tucson, that’s for sure!

Robert had a Caltech mini-crisis that needed immediate attention, so he was up until almost 1 am dealing with that.  I went to bed about 10.  

Up around 6, and down for breakfast about 7:30 am.  Excellent variety of foods, except for fruit.  A BIG bowl of prunes (which I skipped) and also a large bowl of canned peaches – I haven’t had canned peaches in years, and you know, they taste exactly the same as they used to!  How fun! We had salami and ham and cheese and pastry, along with take-the-enamel-off-your-teeth-authentic grapefruit juice!  Tomorrow I am definitely having the blood orange juice, for sure!

Robert worked for a bit before we needed to leave, about 9 am.  Turns out, our car was magically transported to a private parking area which is right next to the hotel!  So close and convenient!  Out and about at 9 am and heading to Sarteano.  Our object is the Tomba of the Infernal Quadriga, one of the most amazing tombs in the area!  

It took a little over an hour to get to Sarteano, and the drive was wonderful!  We went through a wonderful small city called Ficulle, which I would love to visit again.  It is up on a hill, has a great castle but is neat and clean and stunningly beautiful!  Definitely one to keep on the “to do” list.  

We were able to find a public parking area behind the post office, and make it up the hill and to the museum (which had a convenient seat right in front of it!) a bit before opening time of 10:30 am.  And, contrary to R’s sarcastic remarks, the museum opened dead on time at 10:30 am!  The folks in the area have put together quite a formidable amateur archaeological group, who work with the museum professionals on excavations in the area.  This tomb was only discovered in 2003, and has been fiercely protected ever since (thankfully!).  It is open only once a week – on Saturdays at 11:30 am, for a limited number of people – you must have a reservation, but all this has done so much to protect the incredible paintings and colors of the scenes.

We were the first ones through the door (surprise!) and got our tickets as well as a map to the tomb area. As we had about an hour between opening and needing to be at the tomb, we first toured the small but wonderful Sarteano museum.  This museum contains some of the most interesting funerary urns we have ever seen.  Our favorite was one that had “arms” wrapped around the front of the top of the urn, which also served as handles! 

At this particular time in this particular area, most of the burials were cremations, with the remains being deposited sometimes in an urn that fit inside another urn, but at any rate, all were covered by what looked to be faces or helmets on the top.  One of particular interest looked almost Cycladic in shape and form!  We very much enjoyed the museum, and commend the local folks on taking such good care of their historical artifacts!

In the basement of the museum, they had created a replica Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga, and it was wonderful!  (Their idea was that as the real tomb was only open once a week for a limited time and visitors, they would create a replica so that others could see what it looks

like.)  As with Faux Lascaux, we’re not fans of faux, but in this case, the replica was incredibly well done and definitely worth a view!  (Apparently, there is some sort of new technology used, the first time in Italy, to duplicate the original work on other walls.)  

From the museum, we headed back out of town to the necropolis spot.  Quite a place!  There was first a burial “podium” – a place where one family prepared their dead for their journey to the underworld, as well as several different shaft tombs.  

Our guide arrived, and did most of his initial presentation in Italian (surprise!) – but some in English. Then we were taken in groups of 8 into the tomba, and seriously, it was a breathtaking experience.  

It is called the Infernal Quadriga because the first scene involves a chariot being driven by a “demon” (with red hair and a FANG!)  There was some damage on the first scene, but it looks like the chariot is being pulled by some sort of horses or griffins.  They were interesting, as they had horse-y heads but claws instead of hooves!  Below the scene is an ocean filled with dancing porpoises.

The next scene shows an older man (with whiskers) with a younger man (possibly his son) together at the funerary banquet.  After that is an entire wall containing a three-headed serpent with beards and the crests of roosters and very large teeth.  Finally, behind the huge stone sarcophagus, is another sea creature, this time a fantasy sea creature, a hippocampus, resembling a horse with tail.  

To be able to see the paintings close up and real, was amazing!  The colors are so incredibly fresh and while, apparently, the painting isn’t quite up to the standard of most of the work at Tarquinia, we absolutely loved it!   Can’t exactly remember how I found out about this in the first place, but Sarteano is definitely a place to visit if at all possible.  

By the time we got finished at the necropolis, it was 1 pm and we were definitely ready for lunch. We headed back toward Orvieto, hoping to find a good place to eat, but being Saturday, things were pretty quiet.  So, back to town and parked the car at the Duomo once again, and to the hotel.  

Dropped our things and asked the gal at the desk for a recommendation on where to go for lunch at 2-ish on a Saturday.  Without a hesitation, she suggested Mauriziowhich was very close to the hotel.  

Wow!  Fabulous lunch/dinner!!!  We were seated by a grandson of the founder, who was great.  This is a man who loves food!  Turns out, after years of running a restaurant, the family decided to take a stab at growing grapes and making other products, with the result being that they now have quite a range of products that they serve in their restaurant. We had their olive oil and their incredible balsamic vinegar, as well as spreads, pastas and wines!  

We started with slices of bread with olive oil only; great, and went very well with the family’s Orvieto Classico white wine.  Then we were also given slices of parmesan cheese with balsamic vinegar – a really terrific idea!  For starters, I had their ensalada caprese (mozzarella and tomatoes) and Rhad their spelt salad – barley mixed with olive oil, roasted peppers, tomatoes and olives.  For mains, we both had their steak, cooked perfectly rare, with a red wine reduction sauce, and served with sides of roasted potatoes and grilled veggies with cheese. Rordered the potatoes and I ordered the veggies, and we split them. Truly, there wasn’t a bit left on any of the places!  YUM! (Have also booked our Sunday lunch tomorrow there; definitely worth a repeat!)

We didn’t have any dessert, but were given glasses of dessert wine (which was wonderful) and some family-made cookies to dip into the wine.  Seriously?!  What a great meal!  Finally, after almost 2½ hours, we stumbled back to the hotel for a total collapse.  So … tomorrow we will do the underground tour, and the museum as well as look for the necropoli.  Unless, of course, lunch interferes!

Lots of love,

m

xxx