Our last day in lovely Orvieto, we started with coffee at Montanucci.  Then we walked up through Piazza Popolo towards the trail which overlooks the Etruscan Necropolis site.  We walked all the way down to the entrance, but it is closed on Tuesdays so, oviously, we didn’t go inside.  Poor planning on my part.  You can almost see in this photo, in the very green area through the center, are the grass covered tombs.  

From there we walked more of the Anello della Rupe around to the west with fabulous views of the cliffs and the country side.  We had some fun conversations with people as we tried to interpret the map to stay on the trail.

Finally, we went back up at the spiral staircase near the back of the duomo.  We stopped again to take a look at the magnificent building and walked on home.

For the afternoon, we went back to the duomo area for the Archeological museum.  First display was under the cathedral itself:

And then into the actual museum which is mostly dedicated to Etruscan artifacts.  What a fascinating culture!  Living from 900 BC to about 27BC when they were conquered by Rome, the Etruscans left incredible art.  I asked the docent a question about how to tell which pieces were Etruscan and she explained.  Then she took us into 2 rooms where they have the actual frescoed walls of two Etruscan tombs.  She basically took me on a private guided tour, pointing out some of the most beautiful and significant pieces in the museum.  Ken dropped off quickly because she was speaking Italian.  The bronze work, the jewelry, and the little toys were the most memorable for me.  I didn’t take a single picture because I was concentrating so much on the information she was giving me.  But I did take this of the building, outside:

She asked where we were from and had me promise to send her a post card from Florida, so I left with Gabrielle’s address, a tiny education on the Etruscans, and a fabulous memory.

We came home around 5:00, already pretty dark and feeling so much later.  The plan was to cook the sausage we had bought on Saturday, but when I opened them up they gave me little scare, smelling not quite right.  So, after packing our stuff, we ended up just finishing some wine and taralli, eating salad, and watching Homeland.  

It was an unceremonious end to a fabulous week.