Another fantastic day today! Mr. Carroll cooked the most delicious breakfast of sausage, eggs, and breakfast potatoes which made a great start to the day. After our wonderful breakfast, we headed into Murlo for mass. Fortunately for us, there happened to be two baptisms taking place, so we got to enjoy that experience. After mass, we all made plans to spend the rest of the day in Volterra, looking at the towns Etruscan Museum, Roman Theater ruins, and the Etruscan Archaeological Park. The museum was amazing, and did an excellent job highlighting local tomb artifacts, in particular an inscribed bucchero cup that archaeologists at Poggio Civitate used to translate another cup of similar inscription. After the museum we walked around the ruins of the towns old Roman Theater which was interesting in its unusual seats that were built into the side of a hill. From there, we went to the Etruscan Archaeological Park to see the ruins of the Etruscan Acropolis. The lower walls of the buildings were fantastically preserved, and it was fascinating to see the remains of the old city surrounded by current buildings. As an addition, we got to see some examples of Volterra’s famous alabaster sculptures as we walked around the city. Spending the day at the museum was a nice change from our days of backfilling, but I cant wait to get back up to the hill and continue our own excavation tomorrow morning.
-Matt
