From Chiusi to Sovana!

Ciao!

Well, it has been quite a day.  We are now safely back in the apartment and enjoying whatever breezes we can get.  It’s somewhere in the 80’s today, and while we were hoping for a little rain, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen! Oh well!

I loved this over someone's door!

Under Chiusi!

Etruscan original doorway

Looking down into a cistern

One of hundreds of sarcophagi

Me with our very sweet and cute tour guide!

Again, sarcophagi anyone?

Stunning countryside!

Filled with hilltop villages!

Tufa walls lining the roadway

Tombs dug into the hillside

Sorano on the hillside, where I met my big bus!

Etruscan tufa roadways

More Etruscan roads

Beautiful day!

R's artichokes which he kindly shared with me!

My prosciutto; cheese came later!

Potatoes and tomatoes

R's steak

My half grilled chicken

View from the panoramic terrace

Out of order photo, from Chiusi

Up this morning about 6, and ready to go out about 9 am.  Our plan today is to get to Chiusi, where we were yesterday, but this time take the “subterranean tour” from the Civic Museo in town.  They do not post opening hours, but they do post that the first tour is at 10:15 am. So … that is our plan.  Arrived in Chiusi about 9:30 and parked in our “regular” parking area.  Up the hill (why do hill top towns only seem to go up and never down??) and naturally, there was no one at the museum.  Of course, it was only 9:45 am – I am, as Robert puts it, SO impatient!  There was a small bakery/coffee shop around the corner, so we sat down for a few minutes and ordered coffee and hot chocolate.  Well, R’s coffee (Americano) arrived fairly quickly, but as he put it, was only warm!  On the other hand, when my hot chocolate finally arrived, it was scalding! Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to wait for it to cool; had a tour to catch!  So, back around the corner and down the street to the museo.  Only had to wait for a few minutes for a young lady to come with the keys.  She let us in, and turned on the lights, etc. and in a few minutes called us to start the tour.  The interesting thing is that we followed her out the door, up the street, through the piazza and down another street (up which we had already walked, I might add…) to a locked door.  In we went – just the three of us, and, in a minute, we were in Chiusi’s underground tunnels!

They really are amazing. The Etruscans built huge underground cisterns to store rain water, I’m assuming for times of siege, and then built corridors to connect the various cisterns along the way.  We not only saw two different cisterns, but a small underground lake as well!  What fun!

Then, we were taken through room after room after room filled with Etruscan sarcophagi and decorations.  It was incredible, especially seeing everything in that context, in the very corridors that had been carved out by the Etruscans.  According to our guide, whose English wasn’t great, but better than our Italian, and we muddled along together putting the pieces together, the Chiusi collection is the largest source of Etruscan epigraphics in the world.  Unfortunately, as far as is known, the Etruscans left behind very little writing such as history or novels; rather, everything was in the form of names (people and places) and religious chants or procedures for their priests to follow. But even so, the alphabet has been deciphered and much progress has been made on reading Etruscan.  We have seen many, many sarcophagi already on this trip, but the number of inscriptions made this visit very special.  Truly, we were awestruck by what we saw!

After the tour, we headed back to the car, debating how we would spend the rest of our Sunday (it was about 11 am).  We decided on a drive to Sovana and Soriano to see if we could see any of the Etruscan Vie Cava. It turns out that the Etruscans carved out “roads” between necropolis, and they may still be visited. Literally, these paths have been cut straight down into the soft tufa rock layer, 100 feet or more on both sides. According to the computer, the "sunken roads" (were) carved out by the Etruscans during the Bronze age. They are on the World Heritage watch list of endangered monuments because of their fragility; the rock is soft and easily eroded.”  One idea is that, as the Etruscans used these roads, the cart wheels cut into the rock and, every now and then, they would scrape the road flat, eventually deepening the depth of the passage through the hill.  Sounds plausible.

It was a little over an hour’s drive, but truly, the route Robert chose was just incredible.  It seemed like we had these little 2-lane roads entirely to ourselves for mile after mile.  The breeze was blowing and there were beautiful flowers everywhere. Besides my red poppies, there were thousands of broom bushes with lovely yellow flowers, as well as other purple and white blooms, and they smelled SO good! Hard to believe there were people anywhere in the area!  This part of Tuscany seems to be lost or forgotten, with all the tourist activity centered on Florence or Siena, but the scenery here is breathtaking.  Vineyards, farms, villas, villages unbelievably perched on the tops of shear hills, green fields, flowers….

One interesting incident. While entering a hairpin switchback going up a hill, we heard a strange honking sound from somewhere.  About halfway around the curve, we came nose to nose with a VERY large tourist bus, so large that it needed the entire width of the road to get around the bend.  Since size matters in a case like this, we had no option but to back down the hill (not one of Margaret’s favorite driving maneuvers) until the bus could squeeze past.  Good thing the driver blew his horn when he approached the curve.

We were able to see the incredible overhanging town of Sorano and were able to find one of the Vie Cavathe Etruscans used as well.  Very productive day!

By this time, we were getting hungry, so headed back to Montepulciano to look for food.  About 1 km outside of town, we came upon the Fattoria Pulcino, which I had seen yesterday, so decided to see about lunch.  Besides being a restaurant, the place is a market for local foods – cheeses, meats, jams, etc.

We were escorted out on to their panoramic terrace (which was verypanoramic!) to a nice, quiet table.  For starters, I ordered their mixed antipasti, which turned out to be slices of an excellent prosciutto and some local hard white cheese.  Robert ordered the artichoke.  Turns out he got five artichoke halves, actually, so we both shared our appetizers and cleaned up the plates!  For dinner, I ordered their roasted half-chicken and R ordered their filet steak.  We shared one order of roasted potatoes (which were excellent) and slices of ripe tomatoes with basil.  Wow! We managed to make everything disappear, and literally waddled back out to the car.  

Lovely and short drive back to Montepulciano, arriving about 4 pm, at which time I wanted to go out for gelato, missing dessert at the Fattoria.  Robert, of course, declined.  (He is SO good!)

Walked all the way downhill to where I had gotten gelato yesterday, and then started the walk back up. Turns out, when I walked through the Piazza Grande, there was a gelato shop there!  SO:  Note for the record.  No need to go all the way down through town; stay at the top instead!  Oh well!  More steps never hurt.

So, just finishing blogging, and it’s finally starting to cool down here.  The waitress at our restaurant today said that this week it is going to rain – would be nice to get a bit, that’s for sure, as we’d rather face rain that heat – especially as there is no a/c in this flat or the one we’re renting next week in Pisa!! So, stay frosty everyone!

Lots of love,

m

xxx