Tarquinia & Etruscan Countryside

Tarquinia & Etruscan Countryside


We docked early at the port city of Civitavecchia that serves Rome and surrounding areas. The weather could not be better: low humidity and temperatures in the 70’s. After breakfast we got ready for a tour of the medieval Italian town of Tarquinia, located about 30 miles away.

Our guide today was Michele or Mickey as he said. He was a no-nonsense Italian guy with a shaved head. We were dropped off in the medieval town of Tarquinia and I took off to take photos of the town and people while Ma set out to find out about a pending general strike in Barcelona on the day we are supposed to fly out, September 29th. After using three languages she managed to get an international calling card, figure out how to use it, go into a hotel and use their internet to get an Italian phone number for Continental, get them on the line only to be told they have not made any provisions yet for the strike, in fact the agent knew nothing about it.

I had better luck, meeting a couple of local cops and saying hello. They seemed to appreciate the gesture. The rest of the morning was spent in a “Gelateria” where we watched an Italian signora make Italian ice cream called Gelato and we were given generous samples. It was good, but I still prefer Blue Bell. Tomorrow: Leaning Tower of Pisa.