Volterra is positioned on a 545-meter ridge above the convergence of the Era and Cecina river valleys in the Tuscany Metalliferous Hills, a position chosen by the Etruscan city of Velathri approximately 700 BC for the same reason that every Etruscan city chose a hilltop: control of the surrounding territory, defensibility, and visibility. The city that the Etruscans built here was one of the twelve major cities of the Etruscan Dodecapolis, the league of principal Etruscan cities that organized the cultural and political life of Etruria, with a perimeter wall of approximately 7 km (most of which still exists in fragmentary form) enclosing an area five times larger than the current medieval city within its walls. The Etruscan Velathri was a substantial city. What it lost during the Roman conquest and the next millennia of attrition left the medieval Volterra perched on the collapsed edge of the Etruscan urban fabric.
The specific visual characteristic of Volterra that makes it unlike any other Tuscan city: the Balze, the eroded clay badlands on the western edge of the plateau, where the clay of the Pliocene marine sediments that form the hillsides around Volterra has been progressively eroding away from the plateau edge for centuries, carrying sections of the Etruscan and medieval city with it. The medieval monastery of San Giusto partially collapsed into the Balze in the nineteenth century. The Etruscan necropolis that extended along the western plateau edge has been progressively consumed. The Balze are still advancing (approximately 2-3 cm per year). The visual drama of the eroded yellow-gray clay canyons with the city wall above is specifically Volterran and specifically irreplaceable.
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What to See in Volterra
Museo Etrusco Guarnacci
The Museo Etrusco Guarnacci (Via Don Minzoni 15) has the finest collection of Etruscan alabaster funerary urns in existence, approximately 600 cinerary urns (the containers for cremated remains used by the Volterran Etruscan aristocracy from the third century BC onward) with figurative relief carving of mythological, funerary, and daily life scenes. The specific quality of the Volterra urns: the alabaster medium (alabaster is the local stone, still quarried and worked in the area) allows a fineness of carving detail that tufa and terracotta can't match. The most famous object: the "Ombra della Sera" (Shadow of the Evening), a bronze votive figure of elongated proportions (the extreme lengthening of the body form anticipating, by 2,300 years, Giacometti's thin figures) that was found in a Volterra field in the early 1800s and has become the most reproduced symbol of Etruscan art.
Volterra Etruscan: tours & tickets
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See availability & prices →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.The Roman Theater
The Roman theater of Volterra (first century BC, accessible from the Porta Fiorentina or visible from the city walls above) is one of the most visually complete Roman theaters in Tuscany, the cavea substantially intact, the stage wall partially restored, and the specific quality of the afternoon light on the travertine in a position that turns the archaeological site into something more vivid than ruin. The theater is used for summer performances.
The Alabaster Workshops
Volterra has maintained a continuous alabaster-working tradition from the Etruscan period to the present. The Alabastri di Volterra artisan workshops produce objects ranging from tourist trinkets (avoid) to genuinely extraordinary decorative pieces that use the specific qualities of the local alabaster, its translucency, its warm honey color, its ability to be worked to paper-thin delicacy, in ways that industrially produced alabaster products can't replicate. The distinction: the botteghe with workbenches in the window where you can watch the craftsman working are the real ones. The shops near Piazza dei Priori that display only finished products are the retail outlets.
Q&A: Volterra
How do I get to Volterra?
By car: from Florence 80 km (1 hour via the Superstrada Firenze-Pisa-Livorno and the SP68). From Siena 60 km (1 hour). From Pisa 70 km (1 hour). By public transport: regional bus from Saline di Volterra station (on the Cecina-Saline railway, with connections from Pisa and Florence), the bus runs several times daily, approximately 30 minutes. Volterra has no direct train connection. The historic absence of railway access has preserved the isolation that makes the city visually distinctive. The SP68 approach road from Colle Val d'Elsa is the most scenic (the city visible on its ridge from 15 km away).
What Nobody Tells You About Volterra
The Balze viewpoint at sunset, the eroded clay canyons catching the last horizontal light, the ruined monastery wall visible on the plateau edge, the city rising above, is one of the finest landscape compositions in Tuscany and is routinely overlooked by visitors who spend their time in the museum and the medieval center. The Balze are accessible via Via di Borgo Santo Stefano from the Porta San Francesco. The walk (15 minutes from the center) is on flat road. The specific Balze light occurs 30-60 minutes before sunset. The direction is west-northwest.
Internal Links
- Etruscan Civilization: Volterra in Context
- Fiesole: The Etruscan City Near Florence
- Populonia: The Coastal Etruscan Comparison
- Volterra Truffle Area: The San Miniato Connection
- Getting to Volterra: Car From Florence or Siena
- Volterra Area Wine: Vernaccia Context
- Alabaster of Volterra: The Artisan Tradition
