Photo: NikonZ7II (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Tarquinia that starts in the Monterozzi necropolis, continues in the old town and ends at the temple platform of the Ara della Regina, a short drive out of town. The necropolis holds about 6,000 rock-cut tombs, around 200 of them painted, used from the 9th and 8th centuries BCE into the Hellenistic period, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004. In the Calvario sector the tour goes from tomb to tomb, the painted chambers seen through glass doors when open: the Lionesses, Hunting and Fishing, found in 1873, the Hunter, the Warrior, the Jugglers, the Blue Demons, the Bacchantes and the Leopards, among others. In the old town it passes Palazzo Vitelleschi, built between 1436 and 1439, the cathedral, the eleventh-century Torre Barucci, the Romanesque basilica of Santa Maria di Castello, built between 1121 and 1208, San Martino and the Palazzo dei Priori. It ends at the Ara della Regina on the Civita plateau, a sanctuary developed in four phases from the beginning of the sixth century BCE into the Roman period.
22 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 96 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 32 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Necropoli dei Monterozzi, Tomb of the Lionesses, Tomba della Caccia e Pesca, Tomba del Cacciatore, Tomba del Guerriero, Tomba dei Giocolieri, Tomba della Pulcella.
Tomba dei Caronti, Tomba della Fustigazione, Tomba Cardarelli, Tomba dei Demoni Azzurri, Tomba Bartoccini, Tomba dei Baccanti, Tomb of the Leopards.
Palazzo Vitelleschi, Tarquinia Cathedral, Torre Barucci, Santa Maria di Castello, Torrione Matilde di Canossa, Chiesa di San Martino, Palazzo dei Priori, Ara della Regina.
A small chamber under a checkerboard-painted gabled ceiling, where six red pillars evoke an open pavilion around the painted scenes.
The Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, two chambers found in 1873 and among the Monterozzi tombs open to visitors.
The Tomb of the Jugglers, a single painted chamber whose decoration is attributed to painters trained in the Eastern Greek or Ionic manner.
The Tomb of the Blue Demons, a large painted chamber whose entrance corridor was found during road works in 1985.
A single painted chamber where two heraldic leopards face each other across a small tree, high in the gable above a banquet.
The temple platform on the Civita plateau, a sanctuary developed from the beginning of the sixth century BCE into the Roman period.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 22 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 22 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Tarquinia — the Painted Tombs of the Monterozzi, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
22 narration points, including Tomb of the Lionesses, Tomb of the Leopards, Palazzo Vitelleschi, Tarquinia Cathedral and Santa Maria di Castello. That is about 27 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~2½ hours, plus the drives total, but you walk at your own pace. 22 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.