The valley of secrets
Don’t follow the crowds to Tuscany, dig the beauty of Etruria, says Patrick Kidd

Mary Jane Cryan and Fulvio love the gentle pace of life around the Tuscania valley where the search for pre-Roman achaeology will keep an army of workers busy for years

IT WAS early evening in Blera, a small town in the hills north of Rome, and the wine was flowing. Sitting in a dusty stone chamber round a rickety hand-made table, we listened to the old man tell the history of his hideaway. His grandfather had dug it out of the rock as a place to keep his wine at a good temperature and escape from his family — Italian mammas being just as fearsome a hundred years ago as they are now.

Lodged against the wall were three huge casks, from which he occasionally drained another cup of rough vino rosso. Cronies dropped by to see if he wanted a game of cards or just to talk politics. It seemed the perfect refuge from the modern world. “Does your wife know about this place?” I asked. “She knows it exists . . .” he admitted, “but I won’t tell her where it is.”

Blera is typical of many hill towns in northern Lazio, also known as Etruria. This slice of Italy, between Rome and Florence, goes out of its way not to court tourists. I spent two months there once on an archaeological dig; the Italians we worked with were friendly, but the locals viewed us with some suspicion. Initial attempts at Italian were met with the same sort of reaction as a Home Counties accent in rural France. It was a good way to learn the language.

The area is quite unlike Tuscany or Umbria; there are no political freeloaders sipping chianti here. Etruria is a relic of an older age, once home to the Etruscans, a race, that “the Romans, in their usual neighbourly fashion, wiped out entirely in order to make room for Rome with a very big R”, wrote D. H. Lawrence.

Today little remains of Etruscan civilisation; they built almost exclusively of wood and clay and their cities vanished. What evidence we have comes from the magnificent tombs, which spatter the landscape like salami on a pizza and have made a lucrative hunting ground for the tombaroli, or grave-robbers.

Lawrence was fascinated by the Etruscans, writing in Sketches of Etruscan Places that they were filled with “ease, naturalness and an abundance of life”. He was particularly taken by the exquisite, often erotic, paintings inside their tombs — well, he would be.

The area has been shaped by rivers cutting through the soft porous rock, the tufo, forming hills, lakes and deep-sided ravines such as at Norcia, a hauntingly beautiful tomb site where dozens of graves cut into the wall rise above you. There are still volcanic springs in the middle of nowhere, such as the fields outside Viterbo, the area’s historic capital, where you can go bathing in sulphurous pools at midnight.

The fertile soil brings splashes of colour, too, with green and gold fields of wheat in summer, red poppies, and acres of olive trees and grape vines. Every town has fascinating churches, frescoed palaces or a fortress, and the property prices are far cheaper than in Umbria or Tuscany.

Vetralla was once under the governorship of Henry VIII’s ambassador to Rome, and the area has a strong British connection, but Etruria remains Italy’s undiscovered campagna. Those who visit want discretion and to escape the public gaze. Camilla Parker Bowles comes often because it is excellent riding country, and the Prince of Wales sponsored a school of architecture in Viterbo.

The proximity to Rome is an attraction for some — the train takes about an hour and a quarter from Viterbo. Christina Thompson and her husband, Richard, bought a flat in an 18th-century building in the city simply because it was convenient for her husband’s job with the UN in Rome. Mrs Thompson, a garden designer, keeps her fingers green by creating typically English country gardens for expatriates.

“Expats expect a proper garden with their house, but it’s not yet caught on with the Italians. I hope it’s one small thing we can teach them,” she says.

To the west of Viterbo is the Tuscania valley — not to be confused with Tuscany — which Lawrence called “the most beautiful view in all Italy”. John Ferro Sims, a photographer, plans to build a traditional-style home on land he has bought there. The one stumbling block could be the rich archaeology beneath. “If you unearth anything, then the authorities can stop you building,” he says.

From my own experience, housebuilders and archaeologists don’t mix. We would arrive on site in the morning to find reminders that the developers who wanted to build on our Etruscan temple site were getting impatient — such as the bottoms of our wheelbarrows riddled with bullet holes.

Another reason why Etruria has escaped the Tuscan hordes could be the language barrier. Mary Jane Cryan, a writer and travel consultant who promotes the area through her website www.elegantetruria.com, explains: “You won’t find an estate agent who speaks English. Those who want to live here tend to rent for a while or stay with friends, looking for the ideal place.”

LOCAL WRITER  REVEALS MAGIC OF “SECRET” ITALY

“After living in Italy for  36 years, Mary Jane Cryan, author of “AFFRESCHI-EXPORING ETRURIA” , knows just about all there is to know about Etruria, a quiet part of Italy tucked between more touristy Rome and  the  bustling Tuscany region near Florence. Out-of-the-way and hilly  Etruria has tiny villages, ancient architecture, scenic lakes, therapeutic hot springs, abundant olive groves, year-round festas, friendly people and healthy, delicious food…”

The Lowell Sun, July 2002

“This collection of  travel essays (Affreschi-Exploring Etruria) guides you on a journey through northern Lazio, in central Italy, visiting small towns, many of them founded  by the ancient Etruscans, but unfamiliar to the average tourist. The authors give a short history of  each town including such important sights  as  Etruscan and Roman tombs, Byzantine churches and festivals that date from the Renaissance. In addition, the authors offer tips on the best restaurants, cafes, panoramas and gardens in each locale as well as photographs, drawings and  a map of the region.”

NIAF  News- Spring 2002

“The authors of this enjoyable collection of travel essays (Affreschi-Exploring Etruria) give a perceptive insiders’ view of a fascinating corner of Lazio that is still relatively unknown. Roberson guides readers along the Etruscan trail to out-of-the-way sites including Blera, Corchiano and Falerii Nova and Cryan gives us an informative account of typical feasts and local characters, as well as a peep at the hedonistic delights of mud baths …The list of tips and practical information including  “the best place to relax”, “best views”,  are especially helpful for would-be explorers.”

Wanted in Rome,  Nov. 2001

--------------------

What did the Etruscans ever do for us?

They painted, carved, and built, creating amazing decor with themes that were wildly erotic. And they did it all hundreds of years before the Romans got their act together. Michael Church's eyes are opened as he ventures into deepest Etruria  04 April 2004

It's a hot summer night in Marta and the dark streets by the waterfront are full of expectant chatter. Any time now, the patron saint will arrive on the waves and the whole town is ready to receive her. Correction: we should have said half the town, not the whole of it, because in this corner of peasant Etruria the Catholic-Communist divide still cuts like a knife.

Little girls with white wings sprouting from their shoulders are escorted by middle-aged nuns in uncharacteristically expansive mood; small boys try their strength hoisting their fathers' giant lanterns; the band tunes up with a tremendous din.

"Precisely when and where will she hit land?" we ask three old men at their café table. Three contemptuous shrugs - they have no idea. Finally a boat covered with fairy lights appears in the blackness, and to ecstatic cries of "Che bellezza!" the saint is shouldered ashore. Then, with the Catholic half of town - including young dads pushing empty prams in the hope of their being filled by divine intervention - we follow her stately progress through the streets, endlessly repeating the same devotional chant to the strains of the band. And strain is the word, because though it keeps the rhythm, the band has a problem with pitch. When the bishop has given his blessing and the ritual is over, the band plays us home with "My Way", each player defiantly doing just that.

Marta is one of the medieval towns ringing Lake Bolsena, the inland sea - replete with fish - which is the focus for this blissful region untouched by tourism. Tuscania may be another of those towns, but Tuscany - as we now understand the word - lies 50 miles to the north: Etruria, home of the Etruscans, is a world apart. Etruscan Places was the encomium D H Lawrence was busy writing when he died: for him, the Romans were the Prussians of antiquity, who ground underfoot the ancient flower of Etruria. He loved the shining muscularity of the Etruscans' paintings, and the amoral innocence of their "obscene" sexual images: from 700-300BC, these settlers from Asia Minor had lived as he thought we all should live. Their civilisation was closer to the Greek than the Roman, but from the evidence of their tombs, which is all we have to go on, it had a gutsy vitality all its own.

And everywhere you stumble on their tracks. Visiting medieval Tuscania with its magnificent Romanesque churches, we meet a young farmer called Lorenzo Caponetti who insists that we refer to this as the New Town. The old one is to be found on his farm in a nearby valley, as he shows us: when the eye gets used to decoding the scrubby contours, every mound and hillock is revealed as a tomb, and of the 2,000 in this necropolis, 1,850 are still to be excavated. He shows us shards left by medieval inhabitants who adapted these dead-houses for living use; he points out the stones of the Via Clodia along which passed Charlemagne, Francis of Assisi, and Dante. The universities of Rome and Oregon are soon to do a dig, but the larger question of how to open it all to the public, as opposed to Caponetti's bed-and-breakfast guests, remains unanswered. His family owns the surface, but the subsoil belongs to us all. One thing leads to another: go down the road and talk to Walter Maioli, says Caponetti, and suddenly we're magically close to those Etruscans. For Maioli is an ethno- musicologist who has recreated the Etruscans' musical instruments - their lyres, flutes, tambourines and drums. He and his daughter, Luce, perform on these as though they've stepped out of the paintings and carvings which are their source-material. Moreover, they've just released a CD, The Etruscan Flutes. The sound-world it evokes is haunting.

Time now to get a fix on the pristine beauty of these vaults hewn out of the rock: time to visit Tarquinia. Overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, this city with its square defensive towers looks like a medieval New York, and the hill above is dotted with military-style bunkers. In each of these a flight of steps leads down to a tomb. Each tomb's decoration is thrillingly intact, and every decorator had his own style. But the biggest buzz in Tarquinia is the museum, to which six of the most celebrated tombs have been transplanted and where, under conditions of perfect atmosphere and vandal-control, you can savour the free-flowing grace with which the musicians, dancers, animals, and fish are depicted. You can also gawp at the Etruscans' erotic table-ware: the knowledge that at the bottom of your cup lurked a penetration in close-up complete with expressions of consternation or delight might have been an additional incentive to drink up quickly.

In craggy Pitigliano, we follow a different trail. The Etruscans nested in caves in its vertiginous cliffs, but later came something unique - a Jewish ghetto with a university attached. Tolerant laws lured Jews here from Rome's Trastevere district and, until unification encouraged them to disperse and assimilate, they comprised a third of the population. Mussolini finished the ghetto off, but the synagogue, with its butchers', bakery and baths, is once more open to visitors bringing Jews from all over the globe. We wander round with a guidebook entitled The Roaming Hebrew in hand.

It's a testimony to the historical richness of Etruria that my compendious Rough Guide does not even mention Vetralla, yet this medieval city, too, is stuffed with an interesting past. Taken in hand by an expat historian, Mary Jane Cryan, the boss of the travel consultancy elegantetruria.com, we are introduced to a potter named Checco Lallo, who is the last in an unbroken line of craftsmen turning out jugs and tureens in the ancient peasant style. His chaotic workshop is a hole in the rock, his materials are dirt and wood, but the pots he throws - working in intense silence - have a rough and appealing grace.

Cryan then reveals a weird English connection. First she shows us a stone plaque in the town hall, indicating that Vetralla enjoyed the official protection of Henry VIII; then she shows us a bust of the Duke of York who visited the town in 1774, and who confirmed the relationship (which she insists has never been revoked). Then she shows us the prison-camp where shot-down British airmen were penned in 1944, and finally she introduces us to three Italian air-force veterans sipping coffee in the main square who point to the bullet-holes in a venerable old building with one explanatory word: "Spitfire!" Royal protection clearly has its limits.

What's striking about these lovely hill towns is how few tourists visit them, and Brits least of all. Romans come for the beaches and the lake, but nearby Viterbo attracts them like a magnet. Hot springs are the reason: either in the palatial Terme dei Papi spa, or simply in the wild. We stumble on one of these in the middle of a field, where near-boiling water gushes out of the ground, runs along a chalk duct, and collects in a still green pool. Everybody clustered round it looks like an extra from a Fellini film - bikini-clad beauties, busty matrons, long-haired old men with faces suggesting interesting histories. The air is thick with sulphur.

We have, in short, a splendid fortnight, and on our way to the airport decide to stop off at the pretty resort of Santa Marinella for a leisurely lunch by the sea. What happened next still casts a shadow today. Returning to our car, we found a door had been forced, and every piece of luggage removed. It took a while for it to sink in: we had never realised how many essential bits of our lives we routinely take on holiday. Not everyone in our party had the right sort of insurance, and you lose things for which no insurance can ever compensate.

Reporting the robbery at the police station, we found a bemused American family ahead of us, reporting an identical crime. The police were sympathetic, but not surprised. It's clear that this too is part of the magical Etrurian experience, so be warned.

How to get there

Elegant Etruria also arranges accommodation, itineraries and cultural tours throughout the region. For more details see www.elegantetruria.com

Where to find out more Contact The Italian State Tourist Board on 020-7408 1254 or visit www.enit.it

Excerpts  from “The Lure of Lazio”, Richard DeMelim, The  Sunday Times, Feb. 15, 2004

 It sounds odd to say Rome is undiscovered. After all, people have been talking about the Eternal City for, well, an eternity. And yet, estate agents will tell you that Lazio, the region that includes Rome and runs down the left-hand side of central Italy, is an undiscovered joy, and bolt-hole bliss for Brits looking for a prime second home at a bargain price.  

Lazio prices still compare favourably with established bolt-hole locations such as Tuscany and Umbria.

 “Prices in Lazio could be as much as 50% lower” , Says Pietro Giella, of the estate agency Global Property Newwork. “An incredible example is the price difference between Bolsena and Pitiglilano. They are 20 minutes drive apart, but prices in Pitigliano are doubel those around Lake Bolsena. Vendors have not been spoilt by decades of British buyers and people are still happy that non-Italians are coming into the area-especially the local administrations. The flip side of this is that English is not widely spoken, so make sure you find an agent that you can trust."

One of the few in the tourism industry to have explored the Lazio region is the American author of Buying a Home in Italy, Mary Jane Cryan, who runs the travel consultancy Elegant Etruria.

“Lazio has it all, “ she says. “The rolling  countryside, historic and artistic masterpieces, and its close to the capital and airports. In 15 minutes you can be on a beach, at the lakes, or at a Renaissance palace or garden.”

However , it’s worth bearing in mind that coastal areas can get very busy on summer weekends with Romans escaping the city.