hilarywears

I am shortly embarking for a tour of the major Etruscan sites and museums, starting in Rome and ending in Pisa with stays along the way in Viterbo, Orvieto and Volterra. Can any of you suggest good English speaking guides to the sites, preferably archaeology students or graduates - we have our own car so it is the expertise that we need. Alternatively, can anyone suggest how we would go about finding likely candidates?

Any tips or advice from anyone who has visited the sites or towns listed gratefully received. Thank you!

sandralist

You might try contacting the woman who runs this website to see if she can put you in touch with experts. She lives not far from Viterbo.

sandralist

Sorry -- hit the button before I put in the website link!

http://www.elegantetruria.com/services/

southeuropetravel1

You can contact me at [email protected] and I can make some recommendations. I know someone who is a history and art major, EXCELLENT English skills, who can develop a guided tour like this.

If you do email, please use the subject matter "Fodor Guided Tours" so I know to look out for it and don't think it's junk.

Best

Laura

StCirq

Since you're going to be fairly close by in Orvieto, I would encourage you to visit the Etruscan museum In Chiusi.

bvlenci

My husband and I did a self-guided tour of Etruscan sites, and it was one of our most enjoyable trips. There are some very interesting archaeological sites that are completely abandoned. Norchia, for example, has an Etruscan necropolis, and there are also the ruins of a medieval village.

I recommend that you read "Etruscan Places", by D.H. Lawrence before your trip. Lawrence was a little preoccupied by the death symbolism in the Etruscan ruins, possibly influenced by his own impending death from tuberculosis. On the other hand, virtually all that remains of Etruscan civilization are some city walls and the tombs, so it's easy to get a skewed view of the culture.

I know an excellent tour guide who's a specialist in ancient Rome, Daniella Hunt of www.rome-tours.com . She's a classics scholar, who assists on archaeological digs, and also a licensed tour guide. If she's not available, as she often isn't, she should be able to recommend someone else.

hilarywears

Thank you all for your replies and do keep them coming!

Veii ,Cerveteri ,Pygri ,San Giovenale , Tarquinia ,Castel d'Asso,Tuscania, Sovana, Roselle, Vetulonia, Populania, Chiusi,Cortona, Volterra and Fiascole

is our list to date as well as the Etruscan museums in Rome,Chiusi, Viterbo and a selection of others along the way...

Norchia looks like becoming an add-in.

I shall add DH Lawrence to our reading list....

welltraveledbrit

I've always wanted to see more of the Etruscan sites so I'm interested to read everyone's replies including bvlenci's D H Lawrence recommendation.

I highly recommend the Villa Guilia Museum of Etruscan Art in Rome -which you already have on the list. One of the things that I love about Rome is when you go beyond the top five major sites, lots of amazing places are virtually empty, particularly off season. We were blown away by how extensive the collection was and how few people were there, it really is a wonderful place.

Here's our review (with pictures) in case it's helpful....
http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/2014/...an-museum.html

Sounds like a wonderful trip, seeing some of the burial chambers insitu iis something I'd love to do.

hilarywears

We both felt that we should start at the Villa Guilia and have planned 4 hours there on our first day and built in time on our second day to go back if we want to see more, before we go out to the first sites on the way to Viterbo -and your photos have really excited me. My friend is an art historian and I'm the site (frustrated archaeologist) and culture lover! We met on an expert escorted tour of Minoan Crete last year and both have that passionate thirst for knowledge which means that we want to see and understand as much as we possibly can..and I have long been fascinated by the Etruscans. The trip has had quite extensive research and planning and where permission is needed to see necropoli that has been asked for but I'm sure the "mamma mia" factor will play a part!Happy to report back how it goes and share tips to encourage you to see those sites! And if we find a tame archaeologist to share details...

hilarywears

Thank you bvlenci - do you have any practical tips from your tour, favourite sites, pitfalls to avoid, any out of the way but worthwhile places you stumbled across? DH is ordered...

eastave

We are not Etruscan experts. But we spend a week almost every summer near Montepulciano, so have been to many of the small museums in the area. One of my favorite visits was to walk along a vie cave near Pitigliano. I don't know where that ranks for Etruscan experts, but it was a cool thing to do for us.

bvlenci

While you're in Rome, I highly recommend you go to the Vatican Museums to see their Etruscan Collection. You can get to it without braving the mob scene heading to the Sistine Chapel. (While you're there, have a look at the Egyptian Collection, too.)

We took our trip about ten years ago, so we don't have a lot of up-to-date information. My memory is a little hazy on some points, as well. We stayed in Tarquinia Lido; it was early spring, so the beach crowd wasn't there yet, and we enjoyed being near the sea, and walking along the shore road. The museum in Tarquinia is wonderful.

Sovana is a lovely little town, apart from the Etruscan tombs, which we didn't see, because there was a cloudburst just as we go there.

Cerveteri was the most impressive site to me. Tarquinia has some more beautiful tombs, but Cerveteri had a solemn, yet peaceful atmosphere that greatly impressed me. We didn't get to the museum in Cerveteri.

Norchia also was very special. We had to walk through a meadow to get to the necropolis, and we passed a shepherd with his flock, who pointed us in the right direction. It's really abandoned and not easy to find the tombs, which are excavated in the sides of a cliff. Something I read, but can't find now, said that the descendants of an Etruscan noble family lived in the adjacent town until some time in the middle ages, when a Pope confiscated the land of the village and killed or exiled (I can't remember the details) the residents. The necropolis and the ruins of the medieval town seemed to represent the death of two different civilizations.

We really liked Volterra, too.

It's a different trip, but if you go to Cortona (which I must say underwhelmed me on the whole) do go to the municipal museum, where they have a wonderful Etruscan candelabra.

hilarywears

yes, it's on our list too!think it points towards Sovana...

Has anyone seen the Etruscan Gallery at the Vatican Museum? I have tried three times over the last two years and it's always been closed...am beginning to take it personally.

hilarywears

Thank you sandralist...I did as you suggested and contacted Mary Jane and am now waiting to hear back from a young archaeologist studying for her Phd in Viterbo. Fingers crossed!

hilarywears

We still haven't heard back from our prospective guide and with five weeks to go I wonder if anyone has any other guide suggestions?