Rita's Overseas Trip 2007: Castello Orsini-Odescalchi & Sutri

Dear All,

It is quicker to start a new blog than to keep adding to an already long one. Just a few pictures of THE castle! Tom and Katie were not mentioned by the tour guide until someone asked in a reception room which was all set up for a wedding reception, "Is this where Tom and Katie had theirs?"and she answered "Yes!" and added nothing. The castle itself is beautiful and I will just put in a few photos:

1) This is taken from the street below - doesn't show the full extent at all, but you can see the towers and the vines. 2) This is the room set up for a wedding reception. The busts are all the notables of the Orsini family. 3) The bear was the emblem of the family and this statue greeted those etering via the stairs1) This was a ''men's"room - very large and packed with delightful things like lances, arrows, axes for executions, armour and also a 'horse' with fully-armed rider. The walls were adorned with frescoes of naked/semi-clothed men in various combat situations. 2) The courtyard was well up in the castle. 3) The kitchen, as you would imagine, was large and suprisingly well appointed. Outside this room, and separated only by a bench, was a large room with the preserved heads of a variety of animals adorning the walls. Apparently the slaughtering of the animals was done in this room and a drain carried the blood away to be used as fertiliser.

Our final stop was at a town called Sutri where there was an amphithteatre, completely carveout of the local tuff volcanic rock (filled with air bubbles and soft enough to carve).

There were also Etruscan tombs, most of which had been used for agricultural purposes over the centuries because they were large caves in the tuff cliffs. But, carved much deeper than the others is one which first belonged to wealthy Etruscans, was used by the Romans, was later converteed into a temple by the Mithraic cult and was finally adopted by the Christians. It dates from the 13-14th century. We visited this and there were still frescoes on the wall dating from the earliest Christian times. Aparently the Christians had a habit of building their churches atop Mithraic shrines because it often threw persecutors off the scent!