The Etruscan necropolis of Pianacce lies just beyond the centre of Sarteano, a scatter of rock-cut tombs that span the sixth to the second centuries B.C. The Etruscans, who flourished in central Italy before the rise of Rome, were notably preoccupied with the afterlife, carving elaborate subterranean chambers to house their dead as if for an eternal banquet. At Pianacce, the most arresting of these is the so-called Tomb of the Infernal Quadriga, discovered only in 2003. Its fourth-century frescoes depict a chariot drawn by two lions and guided by a blue-skinned demon, a rare and vivid glimpse into Etruscan visions of the underworld. The site is modest in scale, but its paintings are among the more striking examples of Etruscan funerary art, offering a direct, unsettling encounter with a civilisation that thought deeply about what comes next.
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