|
|
Rates per vehicle for this
excursion:
sedan (1/4 persons) 650 €;
minivan (4 persons) 670 €.
minivan (5/6 persons) 700 €;
minivan (7/8 persons) 770 €. |
Driving times:
Civitavecchia to Caprarola: 1hr
Caprarola to Bracciano: 1hr
Bracciano to Ceri: 30'
Ceri to Cerveteri: 20'
Cerveteri to Civitavecchia : 30'
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
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 anything not specifically
listed as included. |
 |
 |
|
Leaving from
Civitavecchia around 8.30 am we’ll head
for Caprarola. Driving through the woods the Romans called
“Silva Cimina”, along the
lake of Vico we’ll arrive to
Caprarola; a beautiful little medieval
town founded in the 10th Century. The place is famous for the
beautiful palace erected there by the Farnese family. The
Farnese Palace, started around 1530 as
a castle by the famous architect Antonio da Sangallo for Pope Paul
III, was completed by the architect Jacopo Barozzi, better known as
“Il Vignola”, for the Pope’s nephew Alessandro Farnese in 1575. Il
Vignola was able to transform Sangallo’s austere, sturdy castle into
an elegant residential palace. The pentagonal structure of the
Farnese Palace dominates the town of Caprarola which was redesigned
to provide a triumphal access to the Palazzo. The finding of
Etruscan tombs in the area testifies the existence of settlements in
the area before the Roman Era, but the town of
Bracciano is only officially mentioned since the 13th
century. |
|
 |
The city was built around the
impressive Orsini castle which dominates the town itself and the
vast lake. The lakes originated from the crater of a volcano and its
circumference is 20mls. Willingly you can experience the emotion of
visiting a perfectly preserved medieval castle before we get back in
car to drive to Ceri. Most of the cities castles in Italy originated
from castles. The nobles were assigned a fief and they built their
castle were they lived themselves but also accommodated their army
and their peasants. It didn’t take long before the population grew
to the point that they had expand and build houses outside the
castle itself. |
|
|
That didn’t happen in
Ceri and the town and castle are still
one unit. The castle is isolated in the woods and not many people
know of its existence except for some contemporary Romans who love
to have their Saturday night dinner or Sunday lunch in one of the
two great restaurants that are in it. We will arrive to Ceri around
12.30 or 1.00 pm and we’ll have the opportunity to try one of those
restaurants ourselves. Leaving Ceri we’ll head for the town of
Cerveteri where we 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 blocks up to 3 feet of length, result of the carving of
the cylinder. The room inside was decorated like a rich home, with
paintings and bas-reliefs. When these tombs where found they
contained the items that we can now see in the museums: arms,
jewels, pottery, statues, mirrors etc.. |
|
