Where the locals eat-Da Mondino, Tarquinia

 

After a month at sea on Azamara Quest this summer, dining on the  wonderful food  cooked by the only other Italian on board, Chef Fabio from Sicily,  we were  completely spoiled and  not       interested in venturing out to any local restaurants. 

spaghetti con le vongole 

Symbol of Tarquinia, the  Winged Horses 

But  a work day organizing book sales at museums and tourist offices in  the seaside town of Tarquinia  was a good excuse to  take a walk on the beach.

The magnificent  early autumn days  were another reason  to escape work mode and stop in Tarquinia for  lunch . 

entrance area, just beside the Tarquinia railway station 

The numerous seafront restaurants at Tarquinia Lido  were  all closed up tight, for it was a Thursday, and this late  in the season they open  only on weekends when the Romani descend on surrounding seaside towns and restaurants, most of them yearning for a  plate of fritto misto or spaghetti alle vongole.

fritto misto  calamari, gamberi, roasted potatoes, local Cerveteri wine 

main dining area - we are the first to arrive 

Luckily Fulvio knows the area well, having worked for many years as administrator in the local hospital. 

He remembered that the locals often went to a place called Da Mondino, hidden inbetween the railway  station  and an overpass, not a very  elegant location but very popular  with local business owners for lunch break. 

view of the overpass, from Da Mondino

hungry  firefighters start to gather 

A large,  kitsch fountain could be seen from atop the overpass, and after a few minutes trying to  find the entrance, we pulled into a parking space under the overpass, next to  a fire truck. 

Passing near the kitchen a whiff of delicious fish told me it was open for business and along with the fire fighters we were the first to arrive.
 In a few minutes  an elderly curved gentleman sauntered in and headed to his  corner table, greeted warmly by everyone.  

vintage details  

The official  name of the restaurant is Al Passo del Cacciatore, but everyone  knows it as  Mondino's, from the name of the owner, originally from Sardegna: Edomondo, shortened to Mondino. 

  

trees,  fountains and entrance to Da Mondino  

The place quickly filled up and by 1 p.m. most tables were full and the waiter and kitchen staff  bustled around, doing what they have done for decades, cooking and serving  hearty local dishes.     
It was a business crowd  on lunch break but they were also interested in eating well, like all Italians.  

the tables start filling up

fireplace and door to the kitchen

Mondino's  photo hangs over the kitchen door  and a battery of  well used aluminum cooking pots line the kitchen wall.

 His sons, helped by a very professional waiter, run the place and  they have spruced up the unassuming building over the years, adding an  events hall at the rear along with a children's play area and fountains. 

green gardens, playground, fountains and  magnolia trees 

Great day out, excellent price/quality ratio.  We spent  33 euro for an excellent lunch with wine, mineral water and a sorbetto al limone. 

Tarquinia's Secret Gardens

A visit to Tarquinia begins at the Etruscan Museum 

 
  I  made  some wonderful discoveries  Yesterday in Tarquinia, the  Etruscan  town famous for its  painted Etruscan tombs is only a short  drive from my home in  Vetralla and even  closer to Civitavecchia’s port, making it  a perfect  trip  for cruise passengers  looking for an alternative  to  Rome  excursions.

 After  a visit to the Etruscan Museum and  a stop for pizza  we  went to visit  friends with beautiful gardens.

view of Tarquinia from the  garden 

 The first garden is that surrounding an elegant villa  estate  which once belonged to a 19th century Cardinal.  

rare breed  at home in Tarquinia

The  new owners Celeste and Franco have  transformed the villa into an  elegant B&B of only   three rooms.  Check out the  video. 

Across the valley, near Santa Maria del Castello,  is the other garden, studded with sculptures  and roaming peacocks.

Etruscan sphinx  by a local sculptor 

Maremma cowboy statue 

Owner Bruno  has dedicated  decades  of hard manual labor  to create this  magical   place  in an area previously  ignored by the people of Tarquinia, for it is adjacent to  the former slaughter house.

If you have  enjoyed   visiting  these unusual sites, why not share with your friends and leave a comment here below. 

For more information about this area  take a  look at my website. The only books in English   can be ordered directly  from  my  website www.elegantetruria.com  

Teaching History in Italy

Villa Giulia, Etruscan Museum in Rome 

Rome is definitely  one of the best place to be a history student….or teacher.

Many years ago when teaching at international schools in Rome, 

vintage  photo with students 

the history books supplied from the USA practically ignored the Etruscans and Romans thus an ad hoc curriculum was created. Rome was our campus, our library, our textbook: Rome's Villa Giulia museum and Tarquinia and Cerveteri’s museums and necropoli  became extensions of the classroom for on site learning.

Etruscan bucchero  - reproduction by Mastro Cencio 

At Villa Giulia the  kids sat on the floor and spread  themselves out with notebooks, pens and pencils  to sketch artifacts  and fill in study sheets about the Etruscan civilization. 

The stern guards  were quite taken aback  then, but nowadays  this up close and familiar  way of  learning at  a museum is considered acceptable.

Palazzo Vitelleschi, Tarquinia's Etruscan Museum

For  Tarquinia  the best plan was to start on the  top floor of the museum  and work down to the entrance, skipping the “boring” rooms where   hundreds of black and red figure vases  were set in glass cases, including an entire room of  vases decorated with very graphic  erotic scenes.   

erotic vases  at Tarquinia Museum

Teaching youngsters about Roman civilization  involved difficult choices: should we go to  Castle Sant’Angelo, Ostia Antica or the Museum of Roman Civilization in EUR? 

model of the Flavian ampitheatre  Museum of Roman Civilization, EUR

 Lucky students who  visit the Colosseum, Pompeii and  Herculaneum at 10-15 years of age understand history in a deeper way and remember  it for the rest of their lives. A  fascination for  the past developed as a youngster occasionally becomes a life choice, a former student, now history professor at  Oxford, has told me.  

cut away of Castle Sant'Angelo 

The best season for visits to Etruscan, Roman and medieval sites  in the Italian countryside  is  the winter  while the vipers are still hibernating and the sun’s rays are lenient. 

Cerveteri, one of  the top 10   Etruscan sites 

Independent travelers, students and teachers can find  more  practical tips for visiting  Etruscan sites in central Italy in the   several books  I have published. 

the painted tombs of Tarquinia

Happy exploring!

rock hewn tombs of Norchia (ph. J.F.Sims)

 Doric  facade, Norchia 

little known Etruscan necropolis of Norchia, Vetralla

Have you visited  any of the above places as a student or independent traveler?   

A Visit to Etruria

Guest  Blog  

by Timothy Shea and Erika Weiberg

A week ago, while staying in Vetralla, Tim and I decided to visit some of the less-trafficked sites in Lazio and Umbria, regions of Italy once inhabited by the mysterious Etruscans. Like most tourists, we had come to central Italy to visit the eternal city of Rome. As graduate students of classical literature and archaeology, Tim and I spend a lot of our time studying ancient Rome, and Tim wanted to see the big city for the first time. While the Coliseum, the Forum Romanum, and the Pantheon are breathtaking, our two days visiting sites in outer Lazio and Umbria opened our eyes to the colorful burial rites of the Etruscans, an enchanting 16^th century garden, a dying city on a cliff, and the beautiful medieval town of Orvieto.

Necropolis of Monterozzi, Tarquinia 

Day One

The first stop on our itinerary was Tarquinia, an ancient Etruscan site with a series of painted tombs dating from the mid-6^th century to the 2^nd century BC. Tim’s interest had been sparked by the Etruscans, who had inhabited parts of modern Lazio and Umbria since at least the 10^th century BC, and he was scheduled to give a lecture on these tombs to Duke study abroad students later in our trip.

We descended into the damp interior of these wealthy

ancient Etruscans’ tombs, proceeding down long corridors to dead ends at which we pushed buttons to illuminate the inner chambers of the tombs, which are lined with vibrantly painted frescoes.

tomb of the jugglers, Tarquinia 

 The frescoes, which would have surrounded sarcophagi holding the tombs’ inhabitants, depict scenes of banqueting and dancing, scenes with demons and mysterious fake doors, scenes of hunting and fishing, and scenes of athletic games. 

In the impressive museum located in the modern city of Tarquinia, we saw the sarcophagi and grave goods that had been found in these tombs. On the lids of the sarcophagi, the Etruscans sculpted their dead family members in a reclining position, as if dining; scholars suspect that the arrangement of the tombs, the lids of the sarcophagi, and the paintings on the walls point to a conception of the afterlife as a continuous, eternal banquet, surrounded by friends and loved ones.

Bomarzo 

For our next stop, we jumped forward in time to a similarly ethereal site near the modern town of Bomarzo. 
Vicino Orsini, a noble prince of Bomarzo, had a “sacred forest” built for his wife, Giulia Francese, in the 16^th century. 

 Tim  in Bomarzo 

The park is strewn with fantastic sculpted creatures and monsters, which startle and fascinate passers-by; as one inscription indicates, the layout and decorations of the park are intended to liberate the spirit and startle the mind with “lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!”

Fulvio and Erika in the slanted house, Bomarzo 

Terrifying giants lurk, beauties sleep in corners, elephants rage, monstrous faces spook, and houses lean, destroying any sense of equilibrium.

Day Two

The next day we set out on a road trip to the fossilized city of Civita di Bagnoregio. Civita was built on a plateau of volcanic tuff that has eroded drastically since the town was built so that now it can be reached only by a bridge that snakes its way from the modern town of Bagnoregio into the heart of the dying city.

We happened to go on a Sunday and a holiday, so the town, which contains a mere handful of actual inhabitants, was full of pilgrims from nearby towns and countries, who flock there to enjoy the surreal landscape. Most walked across the bridge into the town, but some rode motorbikes, and we even encountered a company of horses, who arrived just as the town’s bell tower chimed noon.

horses in Civita di Bagnoregio 

The town contains several restaurants and gift shops, but the real treat is to wander around the narrow streets and crumbling houses and imagine that you are the last inhabitant of a dying town in a magical, forgotten land.

After our hike to Civita, we drove along winding roads into the olive and wine country of Umbria to visit another city once founded by Etruscans, Orvieto.


The city is now a beautiful relic of its thriving Medieval and Renaissance past, with one of the most fantastic duomos we have ever seen. The facade of the cathedral dazzles with  14^thcentury sculpture by Lorenzo Maitani and walls constructed of alternating layers of white travertine and greenish-black marble. 
Inside, we noticed a portrait of Vergil that often appears on Latin textbooks, painted inside the San Brizio chapel by Renaissance greats Fra Angelico and Luca Signorelli.  

  Coupled with the painters’ Last Judgment, the portraits of classical authors decorating the side walls of the chapel provided a reminder of the region’s complex interweaving of pagan and Christian identities.

We spent the remainder of our day wandering around Orvieto: we met a delightful young shoemaker and leatherworker named Federico , ate a delicious lunch in a restaurant near his shop, and visited two fantastic archaeological museums, il Museo Claudio Faina and il Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, which are brimming with Etruscan finds.

Etruscan Museum, Orvieto 

Duomo seen from the museum 

Our two days in the land of the Etruscans reminded us what a wealth of history, art and archaeology can be found in even the smallest towns in Italy, many of which contain mysteries preserved from the region’s rich past. 
If you have one more day in the region, we recommend visiting Cerveteri, another ancient Etruscan necropolis, and Viterbo, a medieval town with an interesting papal history.

Ciao, and thanks to Mary Jane for asking us to write this guest post and for providing a warm welcome in Vetralla. Thanks also to Fulvio, our special guide. What would you want to see if you had two days in Etruria?

Erika, Tim and  Kitty 

 To learn more about the area and find related blog posts about Bomarzo  and Civita di Bagnoregio, use the search bar  at the top of the page.

photographs by Timothy Shea