Bert and Charley Visit (part 1) - Volterra, Greve, Napoli

Our friends Bert and Charley arrived on March 9.  We spent a few days locally with day trips before embarking on the the "great southern tour."  Our first day trip was to Volterra, a town we had not previously visited.  Volterra is famous as the site of extensive Etruscan archeological discoveries.  The Etruscans were a mysterious pre-Roman people that dominated Italy from about 900 to 400 B.C.E.  Volterra is encircled by remnants of the Etruscan city walls, and many tombs have been excavated in the vicinity.  We visited the Guarnacci Etruscan Museum where a wealth of artifacts are on display.  Etruscans cremated their dead and buried the ashes in an inner urn together with personal possessions in an outer urn.

Burial urns and iron artifacts

The Etruscans were eventually displaced by the Romans, and the museum has a large collection of statuary and pottery from the Roman period.

A large Roman vase >>

To make our day complete, we wanted to stop in at a winery, but after stopping at several beside the road that were closed, we were beginning to fear that none would be open on a Tuesday evening in March.  As a final try, we turned off at a sign and followed a dirt road for several hundred meters and were amazed that Fattoria il Palagio was open!  Interestingly, part of the dirt road to the winery was the old Roman road to Volterra.  The winery was a welcome setting for Bert and Charley to do some serious sampling, and for Carmen to make a new acquaintance.

On Wednesday we went over to Greve, our favorite little town nearby.  We had to have Bert and Charley pose by the statue of il Gallo Nero, the symbol of Chianti Classico.  And wherever you go in Italy, there are photogenic churches.

Then on Thursday we set off on the grand tour South, taking the high-speed train to Napoli.  The first night there, in the ristorante, I made my now-famous ordering of one dessert with four onions (ref. last post).  The next day we set out for the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.  Walking through the Piazza Dante Alighieri, some boys had a pick-up soccer match going.

The museum is rich in statuary: here are a few highlights.  

Apollo with Lyre.  The dark material is porphyry

In the hall of emperors and other famous Romans, Julius Caesar (left) and Brutus (right) reunited.

The Museum also has a fantastic display of frescoes taken from the walls of Pompeii.  Pompeii was our next stop, which will be the subject of the next posting.