Untitled - Davide Lifestyle

THE ETRUSCANS AND THEIR LAND
You have not yet reached the Casentino Valley, but you already realize that these Tuscan places are unlike any other:
the trees, rocks, clouds and terrain seem new yet ancient, just like the faces of the people whose fl ashing dark eyes often have something Oriental about them.
Scientists say that in this part of Italy they still fi nd traces of the genes of an ancient civilization that may have originated in Anatolia or in the legendary Lydia.
So foreign to us because it is not of Indo-European origin, this remote tribe of fi erce, feisty pirates was courageous enough to sail to Egypt
and insolent enough to besiege a pharaoh like Ramses III. Perhaps these ‘teres’ – the Tyrrhenians – arrived by sea to the peninsula of Oenotria,
and since they were predators and restless nomads, they moved inland like famished wolves, but also a bit like those amphibious fi sh that, millions of years earlier,
abandoned the sea for land and became reptiles and later mammals. Here the Tyrrhenians, whom the Egyptians called ‘tursi’ or ‘tusci’, settled and
transformed from intrepid sailors into shepherds, farmers and soldiers. But if you think these new land-dwellers were insignifi cant, weak,
sedentary folk, you’re very wrong because the Etruscans acquired as much power from the fertile earth as they did from the blue sea.
They always remained courageous and proud, with an aristocratic demeanor that is still instantly recognizable in the Tuscans and Umbrians.
If that were not true, how could you explain Saint Francis of Assisi, a gentle soul who was nevertheless so strong-minded that he single-handedly sustained
and rebuilt the Catholic Church, which was in shambles, with such divine actions that only Giotto could portray so strikingly in his paintings?
How could you understand Jacopone da Todi, who composed the Laudi, but with a voice so “vigorous and overwhelming” that it was all a sailor needed
to command his crew and overcome the roar of any storm? And how could you dispel the mystery of a land that was loved and farmed for centuries?
Here – From the port of Pisa to Felsina, Fiesole, and Arezzo and from the sea of Cerveteri to Tarquinia, Vulci, Volsinii, Vetulonia,
and Perugia – you always feel at home. When you open a window, you sense something penetrating and powerful in the air.
You walk along the streets, go out in the countryside and fi nd in each marvelous corner the browns, greens, and blues of Etruria.
You also fi nd in the hearts of its people a profound yet secular spirituality based on the Greek Olympus that nevertheless humanized Jupiter
into Tinia and Hera into Uni, and treated them on equal terms, without deference, just as one would treat his neighbors.
These modern Etruscans always hold their head up high in church and are always ready to assert their rights, but they never betray a friend or pact.
And when you hear people typically say that we know nothing about the Etruscans, that we can’t even read their alphabet, and that they’re
a mysterious people, don’t believe it. History is often a convenience invented by humans to make them feel important through identifi cation with the past,
but in that case, history is inaccurate: it is just one way of understanding things, and it is not always the most reliable. There are other ways.
Using your instinct, for example, you immediately realize that you don’t need dates and you don’t have to explain things, but can just be happy
with the impressions and sensations you feel. You use your heart to explore the eyes and the mystery of these modern Etruscans,
and you come to realize that their lineage must be vigorous if it has survived so many centuries here – even more than the Arabs, who arrived
in Italy a thousand years later – which is impressive. The Etruscans are, in their own way, still nomads. They are as expansive as a summer day,
as wild as their windy sky, and as brilliant as their chimera from Arezzo that, after centuries, is still undecided about its identity but roars at you nonetheless.
Brunello Cucinelli