Rome Off the Beaten Tracks

  If  you wish to know more about the Etruscans and ancient  roman techniques of wine production you can enjoy a two day tour where you will learn about  the ancient wine production techniques and rituals.  We will meet at the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia to explore the ritual of the Etruscan symposium of wine and its symbolic meaning, uses and myths. With its rich collection of vases, sculptures and archaeological finds the Villa Giulia Museum offers an extraordinary opportunity to learn the practices and codes of the Etruscan symposium together with its symbolic and religious meaning. Vases of different shapes had a different use in the ritual and the ceremony was performed in accordance with strict rules. Differently from the Greek world, women of high rank too were admitted and the ritual was often accompanied by performances ,  songs and games. Many of these vases imported from greece with their painted images, tell us about the myths and legends performed during the ceremony which were accompanied by the sound of an instrument in an atmosphere perfumed by oils burned in the incensory. The second day will follow a day trip to the Roman Castelli to the Albani hills scattered with fascinating towns and historical villas. The are devoted from antiquity to late latin, stell keeps the fascination of nature presence and myth of Classical world, blended with the beauty of Renassance and baroque villas with art and monuments. A wine tasting at the tenuta Pallavicini will make us enjoy the culture of local wine and gastronomy. A one day trip will bring us to some astonishing spot highlighting this different fascinations, We will start with Villa Aldobrandini gardens of Frascati still a lush with private gardens where architecture is commanding over nature  where the mountains and its flow of water are part of a majestic monumental and mytical composition of Atlas and Hercules.We will then continue at Pallavicini estate where vineyards and olive groves are everywhere the eye can see. Here we wil visit the historically owned wine producer where you will wonders the wanyards and production site as your guide tells you all about the history of wine in the Roman culture from Bacchus the God of wine to the Roman origin of the modern wine bottle size. Your expert English speaking guide will  take you  for a well desserved tasting of a selection of local red and withe wines along with extra virgin  olive oil on fresh baked bread. After lunch we will spend the afternoon visiting the Museo Archaeologico di Albano housed in a villa dating from 1834, where we will admire the Neoclassic painting of one room, together with all the archaeological finds of the Albano . The visit will be followed by a trip to the monumental circuit of Albano: the big Roman Cistern, still filled with water, the Church of Santa Maria della Rotonda , built over a round nympheum ( (monumental fountain) of the emperor Domizian, villa and catacombs of San Senatore with its frescoes darting from the end of the  fourth century  untill the twentieth  century.  For information  and  tour booking you can send an e-mail to pincicarla4@gmail.com or call the mobile 003483940697.