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Bomarzo is an obscure little town in the Viterbo province of Lazio, Italy. The area of Bomarzo was once a part of the larger region of Etruria, which the mysterious Etruscans dominated... they built a curious structure out of the volcanic rock in a thickly wooded area of Bomarzo in a nearby valley. Today, people call it the Etruscan Pyramid of Bomarzo. Steep steps, a number of platforms, rectangular cubicles, and channels running at odd angles decorate the front wall... The Etruscan Pyramid at Bomarzo is a relatively new discovery. Two local archaeologists named Giovanni Lamoratta and Giuseppe Maiorano stumbled across it...

The story starts with a young nobleman named Duke Pierfrancesco "Vicino" Orsini. Orsini was born around 1516 and married a noblewoman named Guilia Farnese in 1544. He worked as a military officer and diplomat until 1553 when he was captured in the same battle that killed his best friend. He was held for ransom for three years and then, shortly after his release, his beloved wife died. Depressed, Orsini retreated to his family's holdings near Bomarzo where he began to plan his strange, melancholy garden. What is known of the garden is mostly just what historians have found by visiting...