April 23
Chiusi

Long before the tribes around Rome began to consolidate and make plans to conquer the known world, one of the most successful tribes was based in north-central Italy, including the very land around Chiusi. The Etruscans built walled, hilltop cities and forts, made beautiful bronze statues and curious black pottery, and they were experts at collecting and managing what is still today a scarce resource in the area - water.

We had been admiring the bell tower in Chiusi, which is the tallest structure on the tallest hill in the vicinity. Today, we discovered there is a fascinating system of tunnels permeating that hill, and an enormous, rock-lines cistern hollowed out directly beneath the bell tower. We took a guided tour of the Etruscan catacombs, but our guide was a serious-looking Italian man in a suit and tie who spoke only Italian. We were landed typed guidebooks before the tour and occasionally the guide would stop and look directly at Kathy nd me (everyone else in the tour group understood Italian), point to the little brochures, and say something like, "Pa-ai-ga five-a." Nevertheless, the tour was absolutely fascinating. We saw three distinct levels of stone walls, each one built on top of the others, belonging to the Etruscans, the Romans, and finally the "modern" folks. Only the highest, most recent, layers used mortar between the stones. The others were all travertine blocks cut to fit exactly.

After crawling and winding our way through narrow tunnels and steadily going deeper and deeper into the Chiusi hill, we finally reached the large cistern used by the Etruscans to store well water and, later, rain water collected from the town's rooftops. The floor of the chamber was large enough for probably fifty people to stand comfortably, and as high as a three-storey building. It is constructed of the same, carefully cut, travertine stone blocks, fitted without mortar of any kind. Two stone columns connected by arches support the domed roof, which is also just a bunch of rocks sitting one atop the other. The guide explained how the keystones at the very top of the dome were shaped like trapezoids and if one of them were to be removed, the whole structure would come crashing down on us. I know this because of his hand motions, and because one of the women in the group turned green and flattened herself against the wall. We laughed, but the fact that we were standing a hundred feet under a Tuscan hill in a little stone chamber built by people who lived 600 years before the birth of Christ made us all a little nervous, I think.

The exit from the catacombs was more direct than the entrance. We climbed a long spiral staircase and eventually emerged into the base of the Chiusi bell tower. The guide said something to the group and everyone exited the tower eagerly, it seemed, with shouts over their shoulders of, "Gratzie, areverderci!" Kathy hung back and wanted to climb to the top of the tower. In fact, she was damn disappointed that wasn't part of the tour and started to try to convey that sentiment to the sweet old tour guide, when the young Italian couple in the back asked, "Do you want to go with us to the top?" Apparently, what the guide had told the group was, if you want to go up, go without me and turn the lights out when you leave. The walls were twenty feet thick, and the view from the top was breathtaking. We could even see our little villa on the adjacent hilltop.

We spent the rest of our last day in Tuscany driving and walking around Chiusi, trying to absorb as much of the country as possible. Lunch was a picnic of cheese, olives, and wine in a roadside park between Chiusi and Montepulciano. Back at the villa, Kathy cooked gnocchi and locally-made little sausages for dinner. We needed plenty of rest because tomorrow, all roads lead back to Rome!