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(Closed on Mondays) |
Rates per vehicle for this
excursion:
sedan (1/4 persons) 620 €;
minivan (4 persons) 650 €.
minivan (5/6 persons) 675 €;
minivan (7/8 persons) 710 €. |
Driving times:
Civitavecchia to Tarquinia : 30'
Tarquinia to
Ceri: 1hr
Ceri
to
Cerveteri: 20'
Cerveteri to Civitavecchia: 30' |
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The rates include:
VAT (value added tax 10%), 9 hours of touring in the requested vehicle
conducted by experienced driving guide.
Each additional hour will be charged 1/9 of the total of the tour's
rate.
Rates do
not include:
Entrance fees, meals, drinks, personal purchases or any thing not
specifically listed as included. |
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We will leave
Civitavecchia at about 8 or 8:30 a.m. and drive to
Tarquinia
a lovely medieval town just north of Civitavecchia. In
Tarquinia we stroll around its
attractive narrow streets and visit the Etruscan Museum (optional) Later we will drive to the
location were some of the most interesting
Etruscan tombs have been found. Those tombs are famous for
the quality of their fresco paintings. After visiting the tombs we
drive to Ceri. |
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Ceri
is a little medieval town still
conserving its original aspect, nothing was ever built outside the
city walls! Practically a
castle with the palace of the nobles, the Torlonia's,
dominating the main square and a little church were a Pope who lived
in the 5th Century is buried, Saint Felice II,
who was martyred in a grotto nearby. This would be the ideal place
for a lunch break there are two restaurants
there and they both serve very good food and
wine for a very moderate price. |
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In the afternoon we drive to
Cerveteri to visit the little town itself and the
Etruscan necropolis in the locality
called “Banditaccia”.
A place one must see. A unique atmosphere. The
Banditaccia necropolis brings you
back to the days of the Etruscans. Visiting it is very emotional
experience. The place is like a city for the dead just carved
out of the “tufah” stone. Each one of the cylindrical tombs has
been sculpted like a house of stone. The diameter of the tombs
is between 30 and 90 feet. Inside you find a hall and bedrooms
for the master, his descendants and even for the slaves. The
domed roofs are built using tufah
(tufo) blocks up to 3 feet of length,
result of the carving of the cylinder. |
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The room inside
was decorated like a rich home, with paintings and
bas-reliefs.
Find
out more about the
Etruscans
here.
When these tombs where found they
contained the items that we can now see in the
museums: arms, jewels, pottery, statues, mirrors
etc.The
Etruscans were mysterious people who populated central Italy long
before the days of Rome's greatness, People far advanced in
civilization the Etruscans (apparently they called themselves Tyrrhenians) rose to prosperity and power, then almost disappeared
from history, leaving behind themselves unsolved questions about
their origin and culture. |
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A common theory
is that they came from Asia Minor and they would be
the Lydian's described by the Greek
historian Herodotus who left Asia because of famine and colonized
northern and central Italy. They commenced with the Greeks, the
Phoenicians and the Egyptians and they were
obviously influenced by those cultures. They tried
to overrule the Romans by merging with them rather
than trying to conquer them; the last three of the
“seven kings of Rome” were in fact Etruscan. It seems that the Romans changed from kingdom to
democracy just to get rid of the Etruscan kings. |
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The Etruscans were than expelled by the
Romans who later conquered and absorbed them,
finally adopting many of their advanced arts,
customs and institutions.
Little remains of the Etruscan
literature and their language has been only
partially deciphered. The knowledge we have of the
Etruscans only comes from studying the remains of
their city walls, houses, monuments, and especially
their tombs. The tombs in fact contained weapons,
exquisite jewellery, coins; statues of stone, bronze
and terra-cotta. Plus their famous black pottery (bucchero). Grecian and
Oriental influences are seen in the style of their pottery. |
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