Still in Italy and back in the port of Civitavecchia this morning. We enjoyed another day with tour organizer extroardonaire - Joanne, and along with Garry, our group consisted of Ros, Arnold, Sharon, Peter, Colin, myself and our guide Fabrizio – a very, very talkative chappy whom we have toured with a couple of years ago.
With an early start, our first stop was to the Odescalchi Castle, Lake Bracciano (which is where Tom & Kate were married) but as we were too early to tour the Castle we enjoyed a coffee and made a quick journey to the lakeside town of Anguillara, which was still asleep but a very pretty spot to wander for half an hour.
Back to the Castle and it was off on a guided tour – just spectacular in all its glory with magnificent views over Lake Bracciano. Unlike many of the castles we have been to over the last few weeks, this one had some furniture and clothed models in some of the massive rooms, which made it more interesting – only problem was that we weren't allowed to take photos inside, except for the kitchen.
Off in our little bus again to the old town of Calcata, again perched high on the hilltop, with stone buildings and homes rising out of the top – how did they ever build them???…… and of course, they are still inhabited by towns folk, albeit more of the alternate/hippy types here. One example being of a tree trunk wearing a lovely knitted coat of many colours. It was another spectacular jaunt around the cobbled streets, intriguing doorways into hundreds of little homes, little shops, potted colour, cats everywhere - and all way from the rest of the world.
We had a late lunch at Ceri, at Trattoria "La Rocca", another restaurant with a brilliant view of the countryside – the beer and wine flowed along with the traditional Italian lunch.
As we still had time, Fabrizio treated us to one of the most unusual sites we've seen – the Etruscan Tombs in Cerveteri. The Etruscans were an ancient civilization before the Romans and they built these family tombs into the rocks and then covered them with mounds of rock and soil forming a dome, with a doorway leading into the elaborate rooms and now they look like a lot of stone huts, covered with foliage. We were able to go inside a couple of them where they projected 3D lighting, showing how they would have been adorned way back in the years BC.
Another simply awesome day with a million photos to sift through – again!!!!..... after sailaway, of course.
Photos: Our day with Fabrizio touring in Italy.
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