Cerveteri and Tarquinia: one listing, two visits

The Etruscan necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia went onto the UNESCO list together in 2004, but they are two separate sites in two towns, and the Banditaccia at Cerveteri costs €13 and closes on Mondays (2026).

One 2004 listing, two day plans

The 2004 UNESCO inscription covers both cemeteries under one name, and that single entry is where itineraries go wrong: it reads like one site, and it isn't.

Cerveteri is the architecture: mounds and a road of tombs you walk along. Tarquinia is the painting: tombs you visit for what's on their walls. They answer different questions.

The road distance between the two towns isn't among the figures verified here. Check it before promising yourself both in one afternoon.

Banditaccia: Tuesday to Sunday, 9 am to 7:30 pm

The Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri opens Tuesday to Sunday from 9 am to 7:30 pm and is closed on Mondays (2026).

The full ticket is €13 and the reduced one €2, and an annual pass costs €30. All prices are in euros and come from the Ministry of Culture's page for the site.

The integrated ticket with the Museo Nazionale Cerite, in the town, stays valid for a month. That takes the pressure off: the museum can wait for another day.

A 2 km burial road and mounds 40 meters across

The fenced sector at Cerveteri covers about 20 hectares, with a burial road 2 km long and tumuli up to 40 meters in diameter.

That's a walk, not a stop. The mounds are the reason people come, and the largest ones are big enough to feel like buildings rather than graves.

Tarquinia: about 6,000 tombs, about 200 painted

The Monterozzi necropolis at Tarquinia holds about 6,000² tombs across 130² hectares, and about 200² of them are painted, between the 7th and the 2nd century BC.

The ministry describes it as the most important group of pre-Roman classical painting in the Mediterranean. The figures follow a fixed convention: men in red, women in white.

The ministry's numbers are themselves approximate, and they're given here the way the source gives them.

Two town museums, 43 years apart

Each necropolis has a museum in its town: Tarquinia's opened in 1924 and the Museo Nazionale Cerite at Cerveteri in 1967.

At Cerveteri the museum is tied to your necropolis ticket through the integrated ticket valid for a month, so the town visit can wait for a second trip.

Tarquinia's hours and prices: not verified

Opening hours and ticket prices for the Monterozzi necropolis are not verified for this page, and no figure is given rather than a guessed one.

Check the Ministry of Culture's page for the Tarquinia necropolis before you go. For the rest of the region's listings, see UNESCO sites in Lazio and Lazio.

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