The pretty medieval town of Cerveteri on the road south to Rome is famous for the UNESCO world heritage archeological park of Banditaccia and its hundreds of remarkable, distinctive round necropoli and thousands of burial chambers. It’s the largest such site in the world with tombs dating back to the 9th century BC, with many masterpieces of Etruscan art on display at the nearby national archeological museum of Etruscan art in the Ruspoli palace.

Cerveteri in built on the site of the ancient Etruscan town of Caere, founded in the 14th century BC as Agylla by the pre-Hellenic Pelasgians before the Etruscans took it. Caere was involved in the battles between the Greeks and Etruscans for control of trade in central Italy, and later fought the Romans for centuries, though they did support them in the 4th century BC when Rome was sacked by the Gauls, and ambushed the invaders on their way home and took everything they’d stolen back.