Volterra

Volterra stands high on a ridge with a Roman theatre below the walls, an Etruscan gate still in use, and a museum holding some six hundred carved funerary urns, one of the largest Etruscan collections anywhere, including a thin elongated bronze figure that D'Annunzio named the Shadow of the Evening. On the western edge the Balze are landslide cliffs eating steadily into the plateau; they have swallowed part of the Etruscan necropolis and a monastery, and the erosion continues. Alabaster has been worked here since Etruscan times and workshops still cut and turn it. The Medici fortress has been a prison since the sixteenth century and remains one.

What you actually see

• The Etruscan urns - some six hundred carved funerary chests in the museum.
• The Balze - landslide cliffs that have eaten part of the ancient city.
• The alabaster workshops - a craft continuous since the Etruscans.
• The Roman theatre - a first-century theatre below the walls.

When to go

April to October; the ridge is windy and cold outside summer. Volterra AD 1398 recreates the medieval town over two Sundays in August. Winter closes some workshops.

Honest expectations

The town is high, windy and steep, with parking outside the walls. The Balze are viewed from a fenced edge for safety. The fortress is an active prison and closed.

Nearby

San Gimignano lies northeast; the Maremma is south.