The Etruscan city of alabaster on a windswept hill
Volterra stands high on a hill between the valleys of the Era and the Cecina, still enclosed by medieval walls and parts of the Etruscan circuit. It was Velathri, one of the twelve great cities of Etruria, and its Porta all'Arco, with three worn stone heads, dates from the fourth century BC.
The Guarnacci Etruscan Museum holds hundreds of carved funerary urns and the mysterious Ombra della Sera, an elongated bronze figure that inspired Giacometti. Piazza dei Priori, with the oldest town hall in Tuscany, the cathedral, the Roman theatre and the Medici fortress, still a prison, complete the picture. Volterra is also the capital of alabaster, worked in the town's workshops for centuries.
Tip: visit an alabaster workshop and the Ecomuseum of Alabaster; the Pinacoteca has Rosso Fiorentino's dramatic Deposition, a Mannerist masterpiece.
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