Hole in one
Trip Start
Nov 27, 2009
1
52
146
Trip End
Ongoing
Our first view of the inside of an amphitheatre was this unusual example at Sutri. A hollowed out tufi rock promontory. Seats, stairwells, balconies, tunnels under the auditorium seating area, all from one gigantic piece of stone. Wonderful to finally be inside an amphitheatre.
A walk around the rock outcrop took us past Etruscan tombs (they were the people who ran this area of Italy before being booted out by the Romans) and past what is now a Christian church, but was originally a Pagan church. Dug into the cliff with just one door and a couple of small windows, it was a site for sacrificing bulls before being consecrated. The interpretation panel told us that due to the gap between pagan beliefs and christianity coming into the area, that the previous use of the church would have been forgotten. I'm not so sure about that timeline but I'm not an historian.
A walk around the rock outcrop took us past Etruscan tombs (they were the people who ran this area of Italy before being booted out by the Romans) and past what is now a Christian church, but was originally a Pagan church. Dug into the cliff with just one door and a couple of small windows, it was a site for sacrificing bulls before being consecrated. The interpretation panel told us that due to the gap between pagan beliefs and christianity coming into the area, that the previous use of the church would have been forgotten. I'm not so sure about that timeline but I'm not an historian.


