She Wolves in the City of the Dead

The inexorable link between the Etruscans and the Romans is seen in the Statue of the She Wolf who took in the founding brother of Rome, Romulus and Remus and as we wound up winding hill side roads we met her. Her teets hanging down as she led us to the Necropolis. Not the original but close enough, it was a yellow lab, that had just had a litter. Down the cypress lined road she ran, craning her neck back periodically to see if we were still following intently to the city of the dead.

Here, we walked down streets past homes that housed the dead, through a town carved out of Tufa rock sitting in the between the hills of Lazio and Tuscany. This Necropolis is where the Etruscans buried their dead. Large circular mounds, called Tumuli, dot the landscape rising from volcanic rock monolithically. Dating back to the sixth century, these are the remnants of the original Italians.

Though it was not the tombs, but the Bitch that reminded of the beginnings of Rome. As always, is it not what you go to see, but what caught your eye along the way.