An amphitheatre carved entirely into the tuff and a Mithraic church
Sutri, on the Via Cassia north of Rome, is an ancient Etruscan and Roman town on a tuff spur, which the Romans called the "gateway to Etruria". Its most surprising monument is just outside the centre, in the Archaeological Park of the Ancient City: an amphitheatre carved entirely into the tuff rock, rather than built, in the first century BC, with seats, corridors and entrances all cut from a single block of stone.
On the opposite wall of the valley open dozens of Etruscan rock tombs, and among them is the church of the Madonna del Parto, a Mithraeum, a temple of the god Mithras carved into the rock, transformed into a Christian church in the Middle Ages and decorated with frescoes, including a procession of pilgrims on the Via Francigena. Above, the town has a Romanesque cathedral and a medieval centre.
Tip: the park is easily visited in an hour and a half; Sutri is a stage of the Via Francigena, and the pilgrim path passes right by the amphitheatre.
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