Chiusi is an ancient Etruscan city on a hilltop in southern Tuscany, between Orvieto (30km) and Montepulciano (15km), with a medieval center sitting directly on top of an extraordinary Etruscan and Roman underground system. The town was Clusium in the Etruscan period, one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan League, and it was from Clusium that the Gallic chieftain Brennus launched the raid that sacked Rome in 390 BC. The museo nazionale etrusco contains one of the finest collections of Etruscan funerary urns and painted pottery in Italy. The underground labyrinth (accessible only by guided tour) reveals 2,500 years of water management carved through the tufa. Chiusi receives a fraction of the visitors that go to the more famous Etruscan sites and has, consequently, the quality of discovery that mass tourism eliminates.
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The Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Chiusi
The Chiusi national museum (Via Porsenna 93, closed Monday, €8) has one of the most important collections of Etruscan artefacts in Tuscany. The canopic jars, funeral urns shaped like human figures, with the lid as a portrait head, are the most distinctive objects in the collection and among the most extraordinary products of Etruscan craftsmanship. The Chiusine canopic tradition produced faces of extraordinary specificity, not idealized but individualized, portraits in terracotta of specific people buried in specific tombs. The collection also includes bucchero (the distinctive matte-black Etruscan ceramic), Attic and local red-figure pottery, bronze objects, and architectural terracottas from tombs in the surrounding countryside.
The Underground Labyrinth
Beneath Chiusi, an Etruscan water management system, expanded by the Romans and used continuously into the medieval period, extends for several kilometers through the tufa. The guided tour (departing from the museum, included in the museum ticket, specific times, verify at the museum) covers approximately 500 metres of tunnels: Roman-era cisterns, Etruscan drainage channels, medieval water storage. The tour culminates at the legendary Tomb of Lars Porsenna, the Etruscan king who besieged Rome after the expulsion of the Tarquins. Whether the tomb was here is debated. The underground space is extraordinary regardless of the attribution.
Questions About Chiusi
How do I get to Chiusi?
By train from Florence: 1h30, direct, €11-16 (Chiusi-Chianciano Terme station is 3km from the town center, taxi available). From Rome: 1h30 by Frecciarossa, €20-35. By car: A1 motorway, Chiusi/Chianciano Terme exit. 5 minutes to the town. The hilltop location means the town center is accessible only on foot from the parking areas below (10-minute walk).
What is the Tomb of Lars Porsenna?
Lars Porsenna (or Porsena) was the Etruscan king of Clusium (Chiusi) who, according to Roman historians, besieged Rome around 508 BC after the expulsion of the last Roman king (Tarquinius Superbus). The story of Mucius Scaevola, who thrust his right hand into a fire to demonstrate Roman courage in front of the king, derives from this siege. Porsenna's legendary tomb, described by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder as a structure of extraordinary complexity with multiple underground levels and bronze bells hung on chains, has never been positively identified. The underground labyrinth of Chiusi is the best candidate, though the archaeological evidence is inconclusive. The legend adds resonance to the tour without changing the quality of the tunnel system.
What is near Chiusi for a full day?
Chiusi is 15km from Montepulciano (the Renaissance hill town with Vino Nobile DOCG, one of the great Italian reds), 30km from Orvieto (the Gothic cathedral, the underground city), and 25km from Pienza (the "ideal Renaissance city" built by Pope Pius II in the 1460s). A day combining Chiusi in the morning with Montepulciano in the afternoon is a natural itinerary.
Curiosità su Chiusi: La Capitale Etrusca
Chiusi fu tra le più potenti delle dodici città della Lega Etrusca, il sistema di alleanze che governava l'Etruria tra il VIII e il III secolo a.C. La sua potenza era basata sul controllo delle rotte commerciali tra il Tirreno (via Vetulonia) e la pianura padana, e sulla fertilità agricola della val di Chiana (che l'Arno e il Po raccolgono rispettivamente a nord e a sud del displuvio toscano). L'assedio di Roma del 390 a.C., condotto da Brenno e i suoi Senoni (un popolo gallico) che aveva attraversato il territorio di Chiusi spingendo Roma a difendersi, fu la maggior sconfitta militare romana prima della Seconda Guerra Punica. Il saccheggio del Campidoglio e la famosa frase attribuita a Brenno ("Vae victis!", guai ai vinti!) sono storicamente documentati in fonti romane. La Capitolina Roma fu salvata, secondo la tradizione, dalle oche sacre di Giunone che svegliarono i difensori con le loro grida durante un attacco notturno. Vedi anche: Tuscany · Orvieto · Montepulciano.
