(map) 
It all seemed normal enough. You turn up, park rangers give you a set of headphones, everyone faffs about until a voice starts coming through with the background information on this magnificent 2,200 year old Etruscan amphitheater, carved directly into (out of?) the tufa stone cliff.
Then a double-take as you’re all standing around in the arena… Did the park ranger really just tell everyone to sniff their armpits?
An extremely elegant 80 year old gent (lower left in first photo) slowly raises his arm in its impeccably starched shirtsleeve and gives a nice long snort. His equally elegant wife all but punches him, hissing, not so sotto-voce, “MA CHE FAI?!”, (“What are you doing?!”).
“Macché ce frega!?” (Roman for, more or less, “What the hell do we care?!”).
Obviously, after the first shock of realization that these were no park rangers and that the “tour” was instead a performance by the interactive acting troupe “Koiné” from Reggio Emilia (event organized by Performingroma.org), everyone got into the swing of things, giggling and armpit asniffing away, removing shoes as prompted, rolling in the grass and rubbing their derrieres against the tufa bleachers which welcomed Etruscan and Roman (likely quite similar) rear-ends two millennia ago.
Ma si, macché ce frega!?
– Contributed by GB (see bio), Editor, Italian Notebook.
The Etruscans never had or used amphitheaters. Dating from the second half of the 1st century B.C., the Sutri amphitheater may have been built with Etruscan labor, but it is definitely Roman, as are all other extant amphitheaters. In the 1970′s there was a yellow tourist sign labeling it as Etruscan, but that was removed in the 1980′s and now the antiquities department maintains an informative panel in Italian and English for the edification of visitors, the number of whom seem definitely to be on the increase.
this made me chuckle because I felt like I was there, getting a kick out of it…sort of like those impromptu (appearing) group musical performances that are taking place around the globe, captured by video and posted on youtube, etc. Thanks for the morning smile..
GB – your photos don’t show the escape routes! But it sounds like fun… Great note.
What great fun, GB! How often do they put on this performance?
What a great article, and excellent photos!
Must stop by that that amphitheater some time, or rather, check out when something this fun is going on again next time!
I think that I shall go to my grave correcting people’s improper use of the word, amphitheater. It is not. It is a theatre. The Greek word for “both” or “around” ambos (ambi), or amphi, if you will, means two theatres joined at their open ends. The best example is the colosseum. It truly is two theaters joined.