Vulci (ancient Velch, the Etruscan name, the Latin Vulci appearing in Roman sources from the 4th century BC) was one of the twelve major cities of the Etruscan Dodecapolis, the league of cities that controlled central Italy before Rome's expansion absorbed them one by one between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. Vulci's specific historical significance: the Francois Tomb, excavated at Vulci in 1857, contained the most extensive surviving narrative fresco cycle in Etruscan art, the heroes of Etruscan legend and Rome's mythic foundation fighting in a specific sequence that rewrites the Romulus and Remus story from an Etruscan perspective. The frescoes are now in the Villa Albani in Rome (where they are essentially inaccessible to the public). What remains at Vulci is the extraordinary scale of the necropolis, hundreds of tomb chambers spread across the plateau above the Fiora river, and the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Vulci in the Castello dell'Abbadia, which contains some of the most important Etruscan bronze work and Greek painted vases excavated anywhere in Italy.
The Greek vase paradox of Vulci: the collections of the British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Berlin Staatliche Museen all contain significant numbers of Greek painted vases (Attic black-figure and red-figure work from the 6th-4th centuries BC) labeled "from Vulci." The 19th-century excavations at Vulci, conducted by the Torlonia family who owned the land, were among the most productive in the history of archaeology in terms of volume of material extracted. The irony: the Etruscans of Vulci imported and buried with their dead more Greek pottery than any other Etruscan city because Vulci was the wealthiest Mediterranean port city of central Italy in the 7th-6th centuries BC, controlling the trade routes from the Tyrrhenian coast into the central Italian interior. The Greek vases they imported are now in London, Paris, New York, and Berlin. What remains at Vulci are the tombs that once contained them and a museum with the material that wasn't exported before Italian export controls were established.
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What to See at Vulci
The Necropoli dell'Osteria
The Necropoli dell'Osteria (the most accessible section of the vast Vulci necropolis, extending west and north of the castle) contains thousands of tomb chambers cut into the tufo rock plateau, ranging from simple pit graves of the 9th-7th century BC to the elaborate multi-chamber family tombs of the 6th-4th century with carved architectural details (the dado tombs, with their carved beam-and-rafter ceilings that replicate the wooden ceilings of Etruscan domestic architecture). The specific visitor experience: the tombs are cut at ground level with their entrances visible in the plateau surface, descending via steps into chambers that are cool, dark, and often intact in their architectural form even when emptied of their funerary contents. The scale of the necropolis (extending for kilometers in every direction from the castle) makes clear why 19th-century excavators could work for decades without exhausting the site.
Ponte dell'Abbadia: The Most Beautiful Bridge in the Maremma
The Ponte dell'Abbadia (the medieval bridge over the Fiora river gorge below the Castello dell'Abbadia) is built on Etruscan and Roman foundations, the specific position where Via Aurelia crossed the Fiora was established in the Etruscan period and continued through the Roman, medieval, and early modern periods on the same bridge structure. The current bridge (14th century reconstruction on older foundations) spans a dramatic basalt gorge where the Fiora narrows between volcanic rock walls before opening into the coastal plain. The bridge connects the Castello dell'Abbadia (the museum) to the archaeological park on the opposite bank. The view from the bridge into the gorge is among the most specifically dramatic landscape encounters in the Maremma.
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Vulci
The museum (inside the Castello dell'Abbadia, the medieval castle built on Etruscan and Roman structures immediately above the Fiora gorge) contains the material retained from the Vulci excavations: Etruscan bronze vessels and weapons (the specific Vulci metalwork tradition was the most technically accomplished in Etruria, the Vulci bronzesmiths exported their work throughout the Mediterranean), terracotta architectural elements from the Vulci temples, and a selection of the Greek vases that weren't exported before Italian heritage law restricted the outflow. The collection is modest compared to what left Vulci in the 19th century but provides the specific Vulci material in its original geographic context.
Q&A: Vulci Etruscan Site
How do I get to Vulci?
By car: Vulci is on the SP Canino-Montalto road, approximately 10km northeast of Montalto di Castro in Viterbo province. From Rome: 130km north on Via Aurelia (SS1) or A12 motorway to the Civitavecchia exit, then SS1 north to Montalto di Castro, then SP inland. Total driving time from Rome: approximately 1.5-2 hours. No public transport serves the site directly. The Parco Naturale della Maremma area between Vulci and the coast is the wider day-trip context: combine Vulci with the coastal lagoons of the Montalto area, or continue north to Orbetello and the Argentario peninsula.
What makes Vulci more interesting than Cerveteri or Tarquinia?
Vulci isn't more interesting, it is differently interesting and completely uncrowded. Tarquinia has the finest painted tombs (the Tomba dei Leopardi, the Tomba degli Auguri, frescoes of extraordinary quality, accessible in person). Cerveteri has the largest and most architecturally impressive tomb mounds (the Banditaccia necropolis with the tumulus tombs of the 7th-6th century). Vulci has the largest necropolis by extent, the most dramatic natural setting (the Fiora gorge), and the specific historical significance of being the city that produced the most exported Greek pottery in the history of Etruscan archaeology. The choice: Tarquinia for painted tombs, Cerveteri for architectural impressiveness, Vulci for historical depth and solitude.
Curiosità su Vulci
Il nome "Francois" della tomba più famosa di Vulci non è etrusco ma quello dell'esploratore alessandrino Alessandro François, che la scoprì nel 1857 durante le campagne di scavo della famiglia Torlonia. François era un esploratore greco-egiziano che aveva già portato alla luce il vaso François (oggi agli Uffizi di Firenze) a Chiusi nel 1845, il più grande e più importante vaso a figure nere della ceramica greca, e che a Vulci fece la sua scoperta più controversa: gli affreschi del sepolcro che riscrivono la leggenda di Roma da prospettiva etrusca. Morì pochi anni dopo, a 51 anni, lasciando inedite le sue note di scavo.
