Gli etruschi

My interest in this highly cultural civilization that had its peak around year 500 B.C is one of the main reasons to me moving back here to Tuscany or “Etruria” as this area was called when it was still ruled by "gli etruschi". This people constituted the first major civilization in Italy and they spread out year 800 B.C. over what is now considered to be Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. They were culturally a very developed people who left beautiful paintings, jewellery and ceramics behind. “Etruria” was a loose collection of cities that were never united and the greatest enemies of this people were the Greeks who lived down south on the peninsula. Something very intriguing about this people is that no one has been able to find out where they came from and no one has ever been able to interpret their language. It is speculated that the language spoken by "gli etruschi" was not even an Indo-European language but that it belongs to another language family. In fact it was gli etruschi that provided Italy with the amazing invention of the alphabet… This people had some strange habits though. They were extremely in to partying and festivities where they would play the so called “double” flute that they had invented and eat extremely much food. Festivities and extraordinary meals prepared for special parties are commonly pictured by gli etruschi even in the chambers of their grave tombs. Another interesting tradition was the sport contests that were held at funerals. You can tell from wall paintings and ceramics that boxing actually was a very popular sport to practise at funerals. “Etruria” stopped existing about 265 B.C shortly after that the last etrurian king, Tarquinius Superbus, had been expelled from Rome by the Romans 509 B.C. and the Roman Republic was founded.