Sadly, it was time to leave Matthew at the airport on Friday morning. Having had a wonderful visit with him over the past few days, we set off for Rome. A hasty hug at the airport, and we had to drop him there...but, hey, we were in Rome! Obviously an auspicious time for a field trip.
We had decided to visit the Etruscan tombs of Cerveteri. Not knowing what to expect (or, truthfully, exactly how to get there), we arrived in a dusty parking lot in the middle of nowhere. A quick consultation at the visitors' center, and we got started.
The Etruscan tombs here mostly date to 700 BC, and are largely carved out of the tuff ("tufo") rock. This is a volcanic rock with the interesting property that it is rather soft and easy to cut and work until it has been exposed to air. At that time, it will harden. For this reason, it made a fantastic building material for early civilizations.
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| A swift's nest! We got to see a parent arriving to feed the babies. |
There is some speculation about where the Etruscans came from. The commonly held belief was that they were a tribe native to Italy; however, literature suggests that they came from Turkey following an extended famine. Pooh-poohed for a long time by the establishment, DNA analysis of isolated current-day populations in an Etruscan stronghold suggests that these peoples actually have stronger genetic ties to Syria/Turkey than they do to any European group.
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| The tombs were built to be like houses |
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| Complete with rooms, supporting columns, and the grave beds |
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| One of the many avenues |
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| Life among the dead |
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| Some of these tombs were huge! Even the smallest were 10 meters across |
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| The women's grave beds had triangular headboards |
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| Some were quite deep... |
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| And looking from underneath, we weren't convinced of the staircases' integrity.... |
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| Checking on Matthew's status |
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| An unusual multi-colored tumulus |
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| Family plot |
On our way home, we passed by a long section of aqueduct just sitting out there for anyone to clamber on. We didn't...just took photos.
Once arrived in Todi, we were greeted by the first afternoon of Todi Fiorita! Our view coming down from the garage:
We got home to discover that the peregrine falcon (which had been hanging out in our cortile since his meal) had just been taken off by the carabinieri. There was some jurisdiction issue...our neighbors had called Leo Wild Park to ask about it, and he had arrived with what Jeremy described as a rather large butterfly net. He captured the poor bird and stuffed him into a carrier box. However, since it was a whatever type of wildlife, it actually fell under the jurisdiction of the carabinieri. The wildlife specialist from the carabinieri showed up, and the bird was transferred to a cardboard box with holes punched in it so that there would be no problems getting the carrier back to Leo Wild Park (!). The carabinieri then marched off with our falcon.
Jeremy found out from research that the ground hopping kill is actually highly unusual, since falcons unsurprisingly prefer to catch their prey via a dive from above, on ground or in mid-air. The Leo Wild Park fellow told me via Facebook that our friend was a "fine male specimen."
We still aren't allowing the rabbit onto the balcony.
Love,
Alexandra
