october-2009

located within museums.
However, the main tool is still the new
“Archaeological Guide following in the
footsteps of the Etruscans”. An opportunity
to demonstrate the region’s Etruscan soul, its
history and evolution, offering tourists a detailed
and up-to-date outline of all the tools used
to make this heritage available to everyone.
Mariarosaria Salvatore and Paolo Bruschetti
from the Superintendence of Archaeological
Heritage of Umbria explain how knowledge of
Etruscan civilisation has reached an excellent
level and above all has managed to eliminate
that aura of mystery that often still surrounds
it. Starting with language. Today, confi rms
Marianna Rosati, editor of the guide, it can be
said that the enigma of the Etruscan language
has been partially resolved, insofar as we know
about its phonetics, the meaning of many words
and we are able to reconstruct parts of its
grammatical rules.
Etruscan cuisine
Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you
are (just a little though, because there are other
RYANAIR INFLIGHT PROMOTION
Sights, tastes and smells
Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi
Roccaporena, part of the Cascia municipality
The Etruscan table
variables and food isn’t everything). This is to
do away with all the talk of culinary journalists
referring to German philosopher Feuerbach,
who, if we carry on as we are, will be
remembered for nothing more than the fateful
phrase “You are what you eat”. Not coined at
all in a culinary sense, Feuerbach was faced
with the concepts of German idealists Hegel et
al and intended to say that man was part of the
land, made of meat, real. So, did the Etruscans
eat? Of course. Precisely for their eating habits,
Greek and Roman historians branded them as
a group with gluttonous tendencies, portraying
their desire for sumptuous banquets and fully
laid tables twice a day, compared to the more
restrained Romans who ‘nibbled’ one meal
frugally while standing up. They also depicted
the women who ate just as much as the men
(without fear of playing down the kindness of
their sex), lounging alongside them in triclinia.
Did they drink too? Certainly, if it’s true (as
it appears to be) that it was the Etruscans
who fi rst produced wine (the word “vinum”
originates from the Etruscans), enjoying it in
large volumes both as part of banquets and
in the kitchen (where they also cooked to
the rhythm of music), and basting their spitroasted
meat. This together with a lot of other
information has been cleverly compiled in a
booklet written by Maria Luciana Buseghin,
The Etruscan Table, which accompanies the
guides and maps of “Segni Etruschi”. Having
reconstructed Etruscan cuisine, Buseghin, an
anthropologist and cooking fan, concludes
with active archaeological information and
dishes out a good number of Umbrian
recipes, presumably originating from the
home of these ancient ancestors: starting
with the crostone etrusco with olives, garlic,
parsley, pinenuts, cheese and walnut kernels,
moving on to sweetbreads and broad beans,
soups and minestrone made with chickpeas,
chestnuts, barley as well as spelt and beans,
fi nishing off with traditional Umbrian dishes,
such as Perugia-style roast duck, Guardeastyle
wild boar, pheasant alla tiberina and
juniper guinea-fowl.
Etruscan through and through!
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