(Closed on Mondays)

Driving times:
Civitavecchia to Tarquinia : 30'

Tarquinia to Ceri: 1hr

Ceri to Cerveteri: 20'

Cerveteri to Civitavecchia: 30'

The rates include: 9 hours of touring in the requested vehicle conducted by experienced driving guide. Each additional hour will be charged 1/9 of the total of the tour's rate.

Rates do not include: Entrance fees, meals, drinks or anything not specifically listed as included.

We will leave Civitavecchia at about 8 or 8:30 a.m. and drive to Tarquinia a lovely medieval town just north of Civitavecchia. In Tarquinia we stroll around its attractive narrow streets and visit the Etruscan Museum (optional) Later we will drive to the location were some of the most interesting Etruscan tombs have been found. Those tombs are famous for the quality of their fresco paintings. After visiting the tombs we drive to Ceri.

In the afternoon we drive to Cerveteri to visit the little town itself and the Etruscan necropolis in the locality called “Banditaccia”. A place one must see. A unique atmosphere. The Banditaccia necropolis brings you back to the days of the Etruscans. Visiting it is very emotional experience. The place is like a city for the dead just carved out of the “tufah” stone. Each one of the cylindrical tombs has been sculpted like a house of stone. The diameter of the tombs is between 30 and 90 feet. Inside you find a hall and bedrooms for the master, his descendants and even for the slaves. The domed roofs are built using tufah (tufo) blocks up to 3 feet of length, result of the carving of the cylinder.

The room inside was decorated like a rich home, with paintings and bas-reliefs.

Find out more about the Etruscans here.

When these tombs where found they contained the items that we can now see in the museums: arms, jewels, pottery, statues, mirrors etc.The Etruscans were mysterious people who populated central Italy long before the days of Rome's greatness, People far advanced in civilization the Etruscans (apparently they called themselves Tyrrhenians) rose to prosperity and power, then almost disappeared from history, leaving behind themselves unsolved questions about their origin and culture.

A common theory is that they came from Asia Minor and they would be the Lydian's described by the Greek historian Herodotus who left Asia because of famine and colonized northern and central Italy. They traded with the Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians and they were obviously influenced by those cultures. They tried to overrule the Romans by merging with them rather than trying to conquer them; the last three of the “seven kings of Rome” were in fact Etruscan. It seems that the Romans changed from kingdom to democracy just to get rid of the Etruscan kings.