TUSCANY.

It is one of my favorite destinations and I don’t understand why it is so little known and visited in relation to the many places nearby. When you enter through one of its doors, you will feel as if you are going through a secret passageway, a door of time that will usher you directly into another era.

The historian Titus Annius Lusco relates that Tuscania was founded by Aeneas’ son Ascanius on the site of the discovery of twelve puppies of dogs (hence the Latin name Tus-cana), while another legend lists Tusco, son of Hercules and Araxe, as the founder.

Leave your car in the large parking lot outside the still intact perimeter walls, which were built to defend this splendid town in the medieval age, but which sees its birth around the seventh century B.C. more or less around the end of the Bronze Age, and which was an important Etruscan center because of its proximity to Tarquinia and the port of Montalto di Castro, a trade route, so don’t be surprised when walking inside you see scattered on the walls countless Etruscan sarcophagi.

Walking through its beautiful streets you will discover palaces and houses that open onto secret vegetable gardens and gardens, until you arrive in the heart of the historic center at the foot of the Torre del Lavello, with its park and its breathtaking view of the valley and Colle San Pietro, its amphitheater and sundial, I recommend you relax and stroll through this unique place.
The present-day historic center is only a part of what was once Medieval Tuscania, which until the 15th century stretched south to Colle San Pietro.

The Romans conquered it in the third century B.C. and built a road, which took the name Clodia, a section of which we can still admire inside. It was later conquered by the Lombards and later by Charlemagne who gave it to the Church.

In spite of the many achievements, in Tuscania one can admire a rare beauty untouched by the various passages, and not even the terrible earthquake of 1971 affected the beauty of these places; on the contrary, thanks to an intelligent work of recovery, its renovations after the seismic event, allowed, by excluding all the interventions and overlapping that took place in later periods, to recover its authenticity.

But its beauties are not only historical because this beautiful town is included within a nature reserve called “Regional Nature Reserve of Tuscania” , is a predominantly hilly, tuffaceous territory of volcanic origin, crossed for a long stretch by the Marta River, rich in fish of protected species in danger of extinction. Another interesting feature and one that if you have time I would recommend seeing, if you are a nature lover is the cork oak forest, it is a pure oak forest that covers about 40 hectares, it is a cork forest in its mature state, one of the oldest and best preserved in Lazio, where you can also admire in its undergrowth wild orchids and asphodels.

What to see.

Church of St. Peter certainly one of the most beautiful churches in Lombard Romanesque style, it stands on the hill of the same name and was probably already an Etruscan place of worship.

Church of Santa Maria Maggiore beautiful testimony of Romanesque art in Tuscania is located on the slopes of St. Peter’s Hill. The first document in which the church is mentioned (a bull from Pope Leo IV to the bishop of Tuscania) dates from the year 852.

You can’t miss a visit to the Fountain of the Seven Spouts, also known as Fonte del Butinale, the oldest fountain in Tuscania, in fact dating back to Etruscan-Roman times, a long basin into which seven spouts pour water.

There are at least five Etruscan necropolises within a two-kilometer radius, some still unearthed after the earthquake:

Tuscania was, in Etruscan times, the center of a vast territory in which villages and small settlements arose throughout antiquity, as evidenced by the numerous necropolises found in the last two centuries. The ancient city, territorially linked to Tarquinia, experienced its greatest splendor in the late Etruscan age (4th – 2nd cent. BCE) at the time of the arrangement of the Via Clodia.
The burials are mainly of the rupestrian type, with one or more compartments, but almost all types of graves are present: from pit graves with cinerary urns to dado graves, i.e., house-shaped even on the outside. Two splendid examples of the latter type remain, the so-called “nut tomb” at the Peschiera necropolis and “the temple tomb” in the Pian di Mola necropolis. The religious and civic center of the city must have been on St. Peter’s Hill, where recent excavations have uncovered remains of settlements from the Bronze Age to the 13th century.

Other important necropolis are those of Ara del Tufo, Madonna dell’Olivo with the famous Queen’s Tomb and its labyrinth, and Scalette.
Among the most important finds of Etruscan grave goods is that of the Curunas family: discovered in the Olivo necropolis and now on display at the National Archaeological Museum, where the sarcophagi of the Vipinana family and other Etruscan and Roman grave goods are also on display, including distinctive clay sarcophagi with portrait features, from the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. For about two centuries the finds from Tuscania were dispersed to major museums in Europe, mainly the Vatican, the Archeological Museum in Florence and the British Museum in London.

Archaeological Museum inside a former Franciscan monastery just outside the walls, there are a number of unearthed artifacts, sarcophagi and furnishings.

Events and festivals

Nitriti a Primavera or May Fair is a Maremma horse event held in Tuscania in late May, during which demonstrations and stunts with horses take place.

Lavender Festival last week of June or first week of July, not everyone knows that the area around Tuscania is rich in lavender cultivations, which can be visited if desired.

WHERE TO EAT.

The typical Tuscan cuisine represents a local variation of the regional dishes of Tuscia Viterbese, among the rustic dishes accompanied by the excellent local olive oil are the homemade pastas the “lombrichelli” and main courses of meat and fish all accompanied by legumes and seasoned by wild fennel.

Osteria Da Alfreda, traditional cuisine
From the Potato, fantastic pizza
Ten chairs, great fish