Daily Updates
Week Two: 30 September
30 September. James Barkely Reporting:
Happy Birthday Thea! After a lovely stay at Castiglione della Pescaia, we continued onwards toward Roselle. As always, Giovanni the bus driver cut the length of the trip by at least a quarter, making it more pleasant. We were greeted at Roselle with the "baa-ing" of sheep that were making their way up the hill which we would eventually climb. Before we had that chance, however, the nice Italian lady at the entrance building warned us about the frigid sub zero temperatures found at the summit. Panicking, we all returned to the bus in order to put on warmer clothes. I must say that I felt bad bothering the driver (Giovanni) who taught me that in Italia a man must give to the women "il sole, il mare, e la luna" and that all Italian men love to "cantare, mangiare, e fare l'amore." Nevertheless, we retrieved our gear and began our ascent. Sure enough, we had our first 'vipera' sighting as Giampiero (whose name everyone thought was Jean Piero) enthusiastically pointed and made hand gestures towards the 6th century Etruscan wall. Poor Kelsey stood there, hand in mouth, gasping as Giampiero unknowingly motioned near this ferocious, ill-tempered, 15 cm long monster. Actually, the vipera was pretty harmless as it kept its head and the majority of its body within the nook in which we saw it. Anyways, we continued up the hill and came across a newer section of wall dating to the middle of the 4th century BC. It appears that the inhabitants at Roselle were pretty intimidated by the ever-growing Roman forces as they revamped their walls with bigger, badder, rectangular blocks. After some more twists and turns and whims and winds, we arrived at a very important Etruscan house. This house bore characteristics of both the Villanovan hut structure and the Greek house structure; a combination which resembles the Roman (Italian) house structure. In this house, there was a tablinum (which was used as a bedroom), a kitchen, a penus, or pantry, two small rooms (probably bedrooms), and a triclinium, or dining room (which was most likely used for dining, reclining and other "festivities"). On the topic of fun and festivities, we next visited Roselle's beautiful amphitheater. Constructed as a walled circle with entrances at the four cardinal points, the amphitheater allows an individual to project his voice to the masses who would have sat on the bleachers above. Right next to the amphitheater, we saw a more recent Roman house which would have been confiscated in order to build the amphitheater. After some insightful lecturing from Giampiero, we then proceeded to look at the forum of Roselle. Here, we saw a strange oval building that appears to have been an ancient shrine, a two-room house dating to the Archaic Period, the House of Mosaics which had beautiful mosaics on its floors, and two temples. We also had an amazing view from which we could see the site of Roselle's ancient rival Vetulonia. Minkun and I could only imagine those ancient Vetulonians, marching across the broad plains below, intent on sacking lofty Roselle. This, however, led to a group conversation about the lack of sacking in the modern world: a very funny conversation. On a side note, IT WAS NOT COLD AT THE TOP OF THE HILL. After this first adventure, we returned to the bus and began the second half of the day with our trip to Populonia. When we reached Populonia, we were given about two hours to grab lunch, relax, and enjoy the beach. Supposedly, there were 'sights' to be seen at the lower end of the beach, so two of us (who shall remain nameless) journeyed downwards only to be disappointed. When those two returned, they rejoined the larger group for lunch. While the food was okay, the highlight of lunch was Dave Stanek's steak. Dave ordered his steak with everyone else and even before some of us. Yet, DaveÕs steak arrived with only 10 minutes left of our break time. Angry, Dave refused to take his steak with him and, instead, slowly and methodically enjoyed his piece of meat. Just when we were about to leave him in the restaurant and, hopefully, in Populonia, we all received the good news that we were skipping the archeological site and could relax at the beach for a longer period of time. Dave was elated. With the exception of Kyle, Craig Dent, Giovanni, and I, everyone else occupied the beach. The girls and guys, including Brian Meyers, went swimming. Prof. Ulrich, on the other hand, basked in the sun while Giampiero strolled up and down the sand. Craig and I chatted with Giovanni whose company rivals his bus driving skills. A sweaty Kyle would join us later. After an amazing day at the beach, it was onwards to Volterra, the home of the beautiful Porta del Arco. Here, the entire group, excluding Giovanni, went to dinner to celebrate Thea's birthday. We all had fun, and I even tasted a wine I like. And on that note, Ciao, amici!
Cyclopean walls at Roselle, and maybe a vipera...
A view of the walls.
Giampiero lectures on the polygonal masonry of the sixth century B.C. (earliest major Etruscan wall circuit extant)
The group walks the wall circuit.