Breakfast was the worst so far, corn flakes and milk, box
juice, coffee, and packaged croissants that looked like they had already spent
way too much time in the cellophane. After breakfast we went up to our room and
brought down our luggage.
I was not happy with a 3pm departure time. I figured there was enough to do in Sutri to keep us busy until 11am, then we could have a coffee and be ready to go at noon. I had told Russell to ask for a noon departure time. Instead of doing that he said we wanted to leave in the afternoon, and whatever time she liked was fine. She was actually calling a cab to take us (ie, it wasn’t someone from the hotel doing the transfer) for heaven’s sake, so Russell should have just told her what time we wanted to go. There would be nothing to do here between I2:30pm to 3pm because of siesta, and we wouldn’t even have a room where we could go to relax. When we came back down I tried to explain to her we wanted to leave at noon, and she called the taxi driver, again, and we all agreed on 1:30pm. Better.
Sutri is a town of ancient origins with places and monuments dating from the Etruscan, Roman, and medieval periods. Fortified high on tufa rocks, it controlled the commerce in this part of Etruria and its prosperity grew with the construction of the Cassia, a great artery of traffic between Rome and the northern regions. It survived several hard battles between Etruscans and Romans, finally becoming ruled as a municipality of Rome in around the 12th century.
Its primary splendor was in the Etruscan time period, and its ancient remains are a major draw for tourism, including: a Roman amphitheater excavated in the tuff rock, an Etruscan necropolis with dozens of rock-cut tombs, a Mithraeum incorporated in the crypt of its church of the Madonna del Parto, and a Romanesque Duomo.
The amphitheater of Sutri is one of the most evocative ancient monuments of the Lazio. It’s entirely dug in the cliff of soft tufa rock, with a major axis of 49 meters and a minor axis of 40 meters. It was constructed with Etruscan techniques and workers between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 2nd century AD.
The Etruscan necropolis is also carved in the rock. 64 tombs are still visible, dated from 3rd century BC to 1st century AD.
We had a tour of the Mithraeum, which is a small Mithraic temple, erected in classical antiquity by the worshippers of Mithras. The Mithraeum was an adapted natural cave. You could see the typical banqueting benches where worshippers would have gathered for a common meal as part of their liturgy. There were many frescoes, which have be added to over the centuries by Christians, who took over the site.
The Via Francigena as expected went all through the site, which we explored quite thoroughly. We then entered the city along the VF through the Porta Vecchia. We visited all of the open/ remaining churches in Sutri, notably the Cathedral di Santa Maria Assunta, which was built in 1207 but heavily revitalized in the 1750’s. Very beautiful church, which is obviously well used today. Our guide at the Mithraeum this morning said there were 79 churches in Sutri at the peak! They are having a Beethoven festival in the town this summer, and we wondered where the concerts were being held. The concerts are being held at the Chiesa San Francesco, which we discovered during our visit to that church. It reminded us of St. Bridget’s – cold! They had a lot of portable propane heaters about.
Sure enough we had finished our sightseeing, had a coffee, and bought our supplies by around noon, so we went back to the Hotel Sutrivm to sit and blog until the taxi arrived.
The taxi driver lived in Sutri but worked in Rome. His driving was very reasonable, except for tailgating the big truck he was stuck behind for most of the trip. It took us about 20 minutes to get to our Hotel Benigni for tonight. The walk was 27.5 km, and would have taken us a good 8 hours. The temperature is heating up again. It was 34 degrees when we got here at 1:40pm today. The forecast in Rome is 36 or 37 degrees for the 5 days we are going to be there.
The hotel room is really small, shabby, sparsely furnished, and not overly clean. This is the last night our dinner is included. One more night after this until Rome. Our hotel rooms in Rome look very nice.
We are thinking now we will walk into Rome – to heck with the traffic! It would be rather an anti-climax to take a taxi to Rome. Plus there are some magnificent views of the city as you walk in from the mountains. If the traffic is really hairy when we get into the city, we can always come up with a Plan B!
We’ll see how the walk goes tomorrow to Isola Farnese.
You were talking earlier about Italian driving. If you think you have seen some crazy driving so far, wait until you reach Rome. The safest way to cross the street is to wait for a priest to cross, then follow right behind; better still a group of priests. Italian drivers will never mow down members of the clergy, whereas tourists are fair game. I don't think they would be able to identify you as pilgrims. Better still, wait for a group of nuns.
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