MAPPING TUSCANY

Roman ruins are all over the place in Italy and locals normally stifle a yawn when zealous archaeologists lecture about the discovery of yet another Roman villa or thermal bath. Science  has managed to puzzle together every minute detail of the modus vivendi of the Roman upper class, b ut things are very different when it comes to the majority of the population, since surprisingly little is known about the living conditions of the Roman farmer.      During the last years groups of Brits and Americans hailing from the universities of Cambridge and Pennsylvania have tried to fill this enormous gap in a joint venture called the Roman Peasant Project together with the universities of  Siena and Grosseto  ( I've written about the strange sudden influx of young attractive foreigners the project brought to our Tuscan backwater  before). The team under scientific director Kim Bowes has been digging through the fields around Cinigiano summer after summer with...

Renaissance art, famous wine and perfect beaches are the first things that come to mind when talking about Tuscany. Lesser known is the region's Etruscan and Roman legacy. A shame if you consider that many of Tuscany's archaeology digs lie adjacent to beautiful hilltop towns and quite a few of the Etruscan museums are state of the art (at least for Italian standards). Less grand but also much lesser known than the Colosseum, these sites make for great off-the-beaten-path sightseeing all through Tuscany.  If anything  the problem is knowing where to start. Which is why I've pressed  British archaeologist Lucy Shipley for some expert advice on the matter.    Where in Tuscany are you digging? I dig at the site of Poggio Civitate, which is near the town of Vescovado di Murlo, about 20km south of Siena. Why on that particular hill? The Etruscan presence in the area was re-discovered by the Italian archaeologist Ranuccio Bianchi-Bandinelli in the 1920...

Cinigiano, my Tuscan village, is off-the-beaten path. And that's exactly why I love it. So the last thing I expect when having a drink at one of the local bars is a crowd of young fashionable looking Americans and Brits doing just the same. Which is exactly what happened to me last  summer. My Tuscan father-in-law spends his whole days at the bar playing cards and my brother-in-law doesn't play cards but nevertheless can always be found at the local bar. They looked as surprised as me when they spotted the flock of young foreigners. To say the least I was WORRIED. Had Cinigiano suddenly moved ON the beaten track?! And if so why?  The relief came once I started eavesdropping on their conversation. The trendy looking youngsters didn't talk about the best Prada or Gucci outlets near Florence and neither were they on the look-out for a cheap hostel. To my utter surprise they were talking archaeology, diligently discussing the findings of their day in a Roman dig near...