Thursday Doors, 12/7/18: Ansedonia

Let’s forget about Slovenia for a moment and return to my Costa d’Argento (Silver Coast) in the south of Tuscany. Cosa might mean What? in Italian but it’s also an ancient historic site and that’s where I was headed a month ago on an open-door day. How convenient.

This post, another in which doors are more part of the scenery than main stars, has three parts: a statue shop, a villa-flanked road and a historic site, all in the community of Ansedonia at the end of our 12 km sandy beach. (Yeah, such hard life.)

When I learned that there was an open-door day at the archaeological site Cosa about 15 minutes away, I recalled how long we needed to find it with my parents after father wished to visit an Etruscan museum. When we finally did, we didn’t enter the museum (it may have been closed) but strolled among the olive trees and encountered a huge partially torn down wall with a great view and not much else.

On the said open-door Sunday I was ready to revisit and report to father what Etruscans were up to. He is a fan.

For some reason I expected crowded parking (as if it was a shopping centre!), that’s why I parked early next to a statue shop. It might have been the only shop in the community of Ansedonia which is no town to speak of. Or, of course, it could be a private residence with simply plenty of statues.

After following the sign to the museum on foot for half an hour in the scorching sun without any water among the villas with a marvellous view, I contemplated capitalism. Those villas, each with a neat little private parking space or two, made me realise that it might not be all that bad (tongue-in-cheek).

After that I realised that I’d been walking for too long. I returned to the car and took it with me. Smart move, that would be some walking. And plenty of space to park was available too.

Once inside the museum grounds, I had a great privilege of a private guided tour by not one but two American archaeologists excavating on the site every summer since 2014. I would love to repeat their words here but I don’t like to tell lies.

How clueless I am became clear immediately when I asked to learn more about the Etruscans here. The girls looked at each other and one said: “This was a Roman, not an Etruscan city. This is where they fought the Etruscans from.” Nuff said…

For all who wish to know more about the no-doubt fascinating history of the ancient Roman city of Cosa, here is one link in English and here is another. And another. (You can see how well I wish my readers: I do my best to equip you with all sorts of information, so that it’s only on you if you don’t educate yourselves since you’re as lazy as I am.) 😉

And now to the doors and statues and gates and villas and scenes from the fascinating little non-Etruscan museum.

Three graces.

It might not be a shop, just an artist in residence.

From there the road passes numerous villas with more or less fancy entrances.

The view of the Monte Argentario peninsula.

Some villas have a road leading in.

An elf door.

Some have a carved-in parking.

Probably the favourite.

The entrance to the Cosa museum.

The House of the Skeleton with a water tank where they supposedly found a very old skeleton (I’m sure more on it can be found in one of them links above.)

That white statue is a replica. The original is kept indoors. Coming up.

The end of the Roman playground.

One of my guides guiding her way to the indoor part of the museum.

I love this stone pattern.

Here is the original of the earlier statue.

I was ready to leave Cosa until the next curious visitor comes along.

But then I saw my two guides in their office. Brilliant! Thank you for the tour!

For Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors challenge.