QUINTO GIORNO: VULCI "QUINTO GIORNO IN PRETURA"
Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, at the end of his adventurous life, came to live in Italy, the Papal States. The Pope had made him prince of Canino . He, as well as a house in the Maremma also had a home in Senigallia. He was very rich but now is not doing so well because more than a couple of investments gone bad. So he answered positively when his second wife Alexandrine, wrote that many of Canino in Senigallia in Maremma did a lot of money digging up graves and selling the funeral. Lucien Bonaparte, who had twelve children to support, he returned home immediately, he put together a team of about a hundred workers and became one of the most active tomb robbers in the area. Lucien Bonaparte was a man in love with the Etruscan world and behave with respect and passion for everything he could find. At his death his wife Alexandrine did not have the same sensitivity and made of havoc. It seems that in every grave chose the best and destroy the rest to keep prices high. Together with Lorenzo Sganzini we went to see the tomb of Lucian, in the main church of Canino, and the Alexandrine. Outside the square, a couple of years there is also a monument to Napoleon's brother. It says: "He loved the freedom, the letters, the land of Tuscia when resting."
The land of Tuscia is that the municipalities of Canino and Montalto di Castro. But the city was once di Vulci, industriale, artigianale, commerciale. Noi siamo stati in quella che oggi si chiamerebbe "zona artigianale". Abbiamo visto una serie di fornaci e soprattutto le altissime mura della prima cinta della città, appena accanto al fiume Fiora e ad un ponte ormai crollato. Abbiamo visto anche la famosissima Cuccumella, la tomba con il tumulo più grande di tutta l'Etruria, con i suoi 75 metri di diametro. La Cuccumella è anche la prova che un'archeologia forsennata può anche fare un sacco di danni. Prima che fosse restaurata (molto bene) era stata ridotta ad una specie di campo di motocross e, alla ricerca di un inesistente tesoro, era stata tutta bucherellata dai vari ricercatori che si erano succeduti. Accanto alle due tombe etrusche adesso beneath the mound is all a maze of tunnels dug into the rock that make it seem a mine.
There was another scholar and archaeologist, in the nineteenth century, who toured the area of \u200b\u200bvolcano, a Florentine, Alessandro François. It was so demoralized in the face of the successes of others like Bonaparte, he had not yet found his grave. Then one day he comes across what is now called the "François Tomb". A grave containing beautiful paintings depicting the myths of Greek heroes and even the local hero Mastarna would become the sixth king of Rome, Servius Tullius. Beautiful frescoes. We entered two paintings in the tomb but we have not seen. For 150 years in the home of the Torlonia princes that with a great sense of ownership and disregard for the universal character of art, they "ripped" in a somewhat 'adventurous literally segandoli and bringing in the lounge of the Villa Albani. Only a few years ago, in exchange for an expensive renovation, could have allowed them to come out and be seen by all those who wanted it in two exhibitions, the first in Germany and the second in the Castle of the Abbey, now a museum containing many artifacts of the tombs Vulci. Torlonia finally come out from home to be returned to the world that should be keeper of the moral right to take advantage of the great masterpieces? Maybe if the Italian Government agrees to pay 15 billion lire needed. And so ended
our trip to Etruria. The journey will be continued by Sergio Valzania, director of Radio 2 and Radio 3, and Bruno Manfellotto, director of the Tyrrhenian Sea. We made a joke at last Joseph Della Fina, a professor of archeology who accompanied us during these five days. We did find, at the tomb of Cuccumella, a bronze coin that I had bought in a stall for two euro. Had a small gasp, when he collected. But it lasted a nanosecond. Our man is prepared and you are not fooled.
Replay the fifth episode.
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