Cerveteri's Etruscan Metropolis

Banditaccia's Etruscan Necropolis in Cerveteri hosts several thousands of tombs in a 400 hectares surface, so being the widest ancient necropolis nn all Europe and Mediterranean area. The lot has been used as a necropolis during more than 600 years, since IX to III b.C., but the more interesting period for today visitors is surely the Etruscan one, it is to say since VII century b.C. on.
Of the whole the fenced part to visit includes only the more monumental 10 hectares, that's why we suggest two more little walks that will best complete the visit.
If you are not in a hurry park your car at the beginning of the tree-lined road going to the ticket office and go on foot for the last 900m, you will walk along the ancient access road to the Necropolis (on the left of the today road).
This promenade among the ancient burials will contribute to deepen you into the atmosphere of Etruscan Hades reign before entering the most monumental area.
The most common type of tomb in this necropolis is the Tumulus one, made of a stony ring surmounted by a hill covered with vegetation, in the stony ring one ore more entrances open with a gliding corridor (Dromos) leading to the tomb itself. Which is sculpted in rock.
According to Etruscan mind the city of the dead had to be perfectly similar to the one of the alive, so the tombs had to imitate the houses. Today nothing is left of the wooden houses of the alive, nevertheless we know perfectly how they were made: their beams structure and their decorations are forever sculpted in the tuff stone of their tombs! Moreover we can follow their progress in building simply comparing their depiction between the more ancient and the more recent ones. In later times tumulus tombs were succeeded by the cube ones, similar to square houses.
In the Tomb of Relieves (VI century b.C.) we even find intact stuccos and frescoes depicting the everyday life of 2600 years ago (as these decorations are very fragile the tomb can only be seen through a glass).
The visit finished, it's very interesting to take a walk along the so called Road of the Underworld (Via degli Inferi), out of the fenced area. It is a suggestive Etruscan "tagliata" (a narrow track carved in tuff stone) arriving to the Necropolis from upstream. Here you will find also the famous tomb with Doric columns. The Via degli Inferi is on the side opposite to the one of the excavations in respect of the ticket office: it's practically the prosecution of the tree-lined road we arrived with beyond the Necropolis (ask the guardians).
Many of the finds are in the National Etruscan Museum of Valle Giulia in Rome and in many others museums spread all over the world: Banditaccia's Necropolis, together with Tarquinia's one is in the Unesco list of World Heritage.