Civitavecchia

Our drive to Civitavecchia (chuh-VEE-tuh-vek-ee-uh) was uneventful other than the damage done to our kidneys and teeth.  Note to self, never drive Superstrada 1 (SS1) again!  Unlike the Autostrada, Superstradas are supported by taxes rather than by tolls.  And boy does it show!  The road was nearly as rough as some of the roads leading to our agriturismos.

Civitavecchia itself strikes us as a rather sketchy city.  There’s not much going for it other than having the port to bring in cruise ships so that tourists can visit Roma.  Our B&B was located a couple of kilometers out of town and was a pleasant enough setting, though.

The first reason for spending two nights here was to break up the drive from Volterra to Sorrento.  A more important reason was to allow us to visit two different Etruscan Necropoli.  (Necropole,  Necropoli  -  sorry thinking of Dana Carvey here).  The first one we visited, Banditaccia (ban-DEE-tach-ee-uh) Necropolis, was one-half hour north of Civitavecchia in the city of Cerveteri.  The second one, with painted tombs, was only 15 minutes south of Civitavecchia in the city of Tarquinia (tar-QUEEN-ee-uh).

Both of these sites were simply amazing.  The Banditaccia Necropolis dates back as far a the 9th century BC.  While most of what we saw here was the elaborate burial tombs, it also included family living quarters.  All constructed out of tufo. We skipped on entering most of the tombs as they were very difficult.  There were several spelunkers here, wearing lighted hard hats, determined to enter the most difficult tombs.  The Tarquinia tombs were unique in that  the interiors were painted. They have been called “the first level of Italian painting”. Most of these have been dated from the 7th to the 4th century B.C. The fact that the paintings have survived this long is amazing!  Of course they are being well protected now.  When leaving the Tarquinia Necropolis, we happened upon our very first view of an ancient Roman aqueduct.

Next stop, Sorrento, a four hour drive away.  Thankfully most of it is Autostrada.  Our longest planned drive while staying at the Sorrento agriturismo is a day trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Banditaccia Necropolis

Tarquinia Necropolis

Roman aqueduct