Necropolis Banditaccia — Attraction in Cerveteri

Such a pitty! The reason that I don't give this beautiful archaeological park 5 stars that it deserves but only 2, is for this: We enter through the ticket office. You will only receive an audio tour after issuing an identification. With this you can hear a sound fragment in various tombs. We are entering the terrain. It is really a beautiful necropolis! We enter the first tomb with audio. What is being told is very interesting and gives you a lot of background information. This is how we enter 3 tombs. At no. 4 is audio and video . Unfortunately, it doesn't work. But there are 6 other tombs with video where it might work. But unfortunately, nothing works at all. I'm going back to the ticketoffice to chance my locker for 1 that does work. Then the lady at the desk, who is only very busy with her whatsapp, tells me that all videos do not work. They are broken. But, we can watch a movie in the restaurant. I go back again and we continue our way through the park. When we arrive at the restaurant everything turns out to be tight. On the paper at one of the door we found out that the film is only shown 4 times a day and we were just too late. The next is only after waiting 1 1/2 hours, and we had now seen everything. Why didn't this lady point me to the limited "show" times? Why was it not told beforehand that nothing worked and that only in 3 tombes audio is available? Then I read on the map we got by entering the parc, that you could also visit the tombs with video and audiowith a guide, for free. When I asked the (bored) woman behind the counter for this option, I was told again that this was not possible. Nothing just works. As an excuse, she indicated that they had just changed owners and that they have no staff. They were only 2 people. Yes? And? She has let us buy an entrance ticket without further mentioning that almost nothing works in the audio and video field. It has also not been pointed out that a movie is being played in the restaurant, but that it is only shown 4 times a day. This type of important archaeological site must be managed by the state and not by private individuals. See the decline here! Such a shame !!! Because the place is magnificent and...

First, be prepared. Second, limit your expectations. Opens only on weekends, despite what the official site says. Can only pay in cash, no card accepted. There is no water fountain anywhere in the huge site, no vending machine anywhere, and the bar is closed "due to COVID" (? currently, all bars in Italy are open). No personnel around, except from the grumpy ticket lady. No guided tour available, no map given: we were told to "just take a picture of this (tiny outdated, black and white) map here" at the entrance. Outdated info panels around the necropolis, some of which were missing positional info and some showing an old path no longer viable. The famous 3D Multimedia tours curated by Italian documentarist Piero Angela have long vanished: all projectors in all tombs were missing, or out-of-order and literally thrown in a corner.

Again, "due to COVID", the didactic, Multimedia and sculpture rooms were closed. I visited many other archaeology sites and museums this week and this is the only one where such a massive closure was enforced. This was clearly for lazyness and lack of personnel.

The site is beautiful, but largely left to itself. Be prepared with Wikipedia or your own private guided tour.

I am extremely disappointed from the management of this astounding UNESCO site. Sadly, it is exceedingly clear how the public fundings are somehow diverted "mafia...

There is no way I could begin to explain how well this site is explained to the visitors via map, signs and the "audioguide" that I want to recomend to anyone who likes to explore in their own pace. The key toombs have an automatic light and sound tour that you can activate at your leasure. I found that the heritage of the Etruscans was treated with respect and dignity by the designers of this exposition. Nowhere did I get the sensation of exploatation noore "graveradtourism". A word of warning: The site is HUGE (bring good shoes) and the experience can be stressfull on hot days (bring shade and water). If you bring kids remember that the tombs, though empty and mostly well lit, can be scary to enter and bring fourth a lot of thoughts and emotions that might return later in the days (and nights) to come. There is allso no way to see everything in a day. Go for the main tombs and see more if there is time. Allso see the video presentation. The museum is not close by ans is for another day in my opinion.

Alltogether it was a very profound and educating experience for the whole family. I would recomend this to anyone. The only sad thing is that the tombs being like they are, they do not seem accessible for example a person in...