Train to Tarquinia

Well, after a more laid-back Thursday in rome itself, with pranzo at the North American College (but the part for priests doing h igher studies, not the seminary), Sr. Margaret and I went to Tarquinia yesterday. It's an ancient city, with burials dating back to the Bronze Age, and then it was a major center of the Etruscan civilization--that's what it is best known for.
We had more travel adventures... The train again. This time, we were going to go to the main train station of Rome, but Sr. Giovanna (she works at the Vatican) heard our plans, and told us we could go to a much nearer station, the St. Peter's station, right on our bus route! So we left the house at 6:35 (had been aiming at 6:30, oh well) and got to St. Gregory VII Church, right near the train station, for 7:00 Mass. Crossing the street to the train station, we got to the ticket desk to inquire about tickets to Civitavecchia, which our study of the train schedule and the internet had indicated was the nearest train station to our destination. From there we would have to take a "pullman" (Greyhound type bus) to Tarquinia. I remembered something about all day tickets, and sure enough the lady said that with the all day ticket for the Lazio region, we could go anywhere we wanted until midnight. Good deal, we figured, so we got them at 9 euros each, and then to our delight, we saw that we could make the 7:55 train to Civitavecchia. We boarded the double-decker commuter train and went to the uppper part to have a better view of the scenery. Well, St. Peter's cupola in the morning sky was nice, but pretty soon we were going through ear-popping tunnels! So much for the view. In fact, later on we did go up the coast, and had a lovely view of the sea. (Civitavecchia is a port city.)
At Civitavecchia, we got off to see about the way to Tarquinia, and were told that on platform 2 there would be a train heading there at 9:25, so we went to wait the 25 minutes. There was an announcement about an arrival related to Tarquinia, but we couldn't understand it. So we waited. And waited. Sr. Margaret went in to inquire, while I stayed on the platform, ready to hold the train with my own two hands if necessary.... And after a long while, Sr. Margaret came back. It was a BUS that was heading to Tarquinia at 9:25 after all, and we had missed it. The train wouldn't come until 11:00. Since the museum at the Etruscan necropolis closes at 2:00, this was a bit of a problem. We had come specifically to see the famous necropolis with its painted underground tombs.
A kind carabiniero at the station answered our questions about the busses, and even led us to the stop, showing us that a bus was due in another 20 minutes. Unfortunately, our all day transit tickets were no good for this bus, which was operated by a private company under contract with the city of Tarquinia and not the government-run transit system. At least we would get to our destination before lunch time!
Aboard the bus, we scrounged up the change needed for the ride, €1.55 each. The driver did not have change for our €10 bill, and the other passenger didn't have anything smaller than that, either. But we all got to Tarquinia just the same. On the way we passed medieval battlements and forts and Roman walls. Sheep grazed on the slopes near the highway by the Via Aurelia exit. (Our generalate in Rome is located near the Via Aurelia, the same ancient roman road.)
At first it seemed that the visitors' center was closed, but we found an open door and two helpful ladies. They plied us with maps and bus-train schedules, telling us just how to get back to Rome (from the--aheam--Tarquinia train station) and how to get to the station (another local bus, this time €0.60 each). So the day was ours. Sr. Sergia had told us there were two fabulous churches that we really shouldn't miss, but it seems we managed to miss them both. One is being renovated into an auditorium, so we walked around the outside of it. As much as we could, that is, since the paving stones on one side were all pulled up for street work. The other was on the other side of town, too far for us to manage to see both it and the necropolis before the world closed for pranzo and siesta. We saw a couple of other very nice little early Gothic churches-since Rome only has one Gothic church, that was really surprising. Anyway, our first real stop was the national museum, a renaissance palazzo built by a local cardinal in the 1400's. I got a few pictures of this charming building. There we bought the discounted tickets that allowed us to visit both the necropolis (2 km outside of town) and the museum itself. That done, we got into power walking mode to find the necropolis.
Walking in Italy is always a bit risky, and even more so in small ancient towns that have no sidewalk, but plenty of cars zipping through the cobblestoned alleys that serve as streets. We found the small road that lead out to the gate we needed, and managed to get to the gate in one piece each. Once outside the gate, we found no sign indicating the way to the necropolis, and our maps ended just outside the gate, so I went into navigator mode and we took off, confirming our direction at a gas station about 100 meters down the road. We also paused at a tiny grocery store to get some marmelata to go with the peanut-butter sandwiches Sr. Margaret had made before we left the house. (That's peanut butter on whole wheat rolls, so you see the need for some marmelata.) Fortunately, the store had tiny little plastic single-serving packs of jams, so we got some of those at €0.10 each and continued trotting down the street, finally arriving at the entrance to the necropolis, which we missed at first--the street vendors of Etruscan replica cups and pitchers.
At the ticket office, we showed our passes, and paid an extra €4 for the audio guide to the tombs that were open for visits. These had been outfitted with plexiglass and climate controlling devices to preserve the ancient frescos (dating to 500 BC). Most of the tombs followed the same pattern, with the frescos depicting the funeral banquet and ritual games (including one in which the contestants aimed their shallow bowls of wine at a target--the one whose wine got the furthest was the winner; a kind of Etruscan version of spitting watermelon seeds). To me, most of the paitings were rather spare, but one tomb had incredibly lifelike paintings. (The audio guide sniffed about their primitive style, but I thought they were lovely.) I tried to get some pictures through the plexiglass, but will wait to see if they came out. I don't want to lose my pictures due to memory card fragmentation, as happed with the beatification.
We made it back to Rome and home somewhat late, at least for me, with time enough only for our Hour of Adoration. In fact, I was so tired at that point, that I went to rest until supper, figuring I would feel a bit energized later. (Wrong!) So today, Jesus and I owe each other some extra time. And I will close this now so we can have more of that quality time. This evening the local community has their monthly retreat day, and I am going to attend the talk by a phenomenal scripture scholar whose books on Paul I have really enjoyed. It's quite an opporturnity!