Volterra: Tuscany’s hidden gem
D H Lawrence once famously described Volterra as being “on a towering great bluff that gets all the winds and sees all the world”. Visiting this most alluring of Tuscan towns, it’s easy to see what he meant.
The fortress-like Volterra, one of Tuscany’s secret gems, sits 1,770ft above the Cecina Valley and 18 miles from the town of San Gimignano to the north-east. It may lack the hordes of high-season tourists that besiege its famous neighbour but it is all the more alluring for it, allowing the visitor to sample its delights at a sedate, leisurely pace.
Lawrence has not been the only literary giant to wax lyrical about Volterra’s charms and the town appears in books by Stephanie Meyer and Dudley Pope. Little wonder, given that it is a gem of Renaissance, medieval and Romanesque art.
The Etruscans – whom Lawrence came here to study – had by the fourth century BC turned what was then called Velathri into one of the most thriving commercial centres of their 12-city confederation. In its heyday, the local population was twice its present 11,000 and it was a wealthy exporter of minerals, alabaster and iron products to states scattered around the Mediterranean.
The town fell to the Romans around 260BC, when its name was changed to Volaterrae, but by then the Etruscans had left behind an unforgettable legacy of alabaster works, principally funereal urns. Alabaster craftsmen still thrive here, as can be seen in the dozens of shops that sell the produce and make Volterra one of the best places in all of Italy in which to shop for it.
The most ancient of Volterra’s attractions is what remains of the original Etruscan walls, built in the fourth century BC and reinforced in the 13th century. The original, 2,400-year-old defensive structure marks the boundaries of the Parco Archeologico public garden, which overlooks the rest of the town from its highest spot.
At one end of the park lies Piazza Martiri della Liberta, probably the best place to view the Cecina Valley and, on clear days, as far as the coast and the Tyrrhenian Sea beyond. At the other end of Parco Archeologico is an imposing fortress built in the 1470s after Florence brutally overran the town. Then, as now, it served as a maximum security jail.
Nearby is the Porta all’Arco, the ancient gateway to the town. Its lower sections remain from the Etruscan era while the upper sections were rebuilt by the Romans. That it remains in existence at all is down to wartime resistance fighters, who in 1944 blocked it with stones to stop it becoming a target for German bombers who hoped to stop the Allies’ march through Italy.
A short walk from here brings you to Piazza dei Priori, without doubt one of Italy’s most enchanting medieval squares. It features the Cassa di Risparmio building, the Palazzo Vescovile and the rear of the cathedral. However, its main features are the Palazzo dei Priori, which took 46 years to complete in the first half of the 13th century, and Palazzo Pretorio, whose central Torre del Porcellino tower was built in 1224.
Volterra’s cathedral backs onto the square; its simple façade was designed by Nicola Pisano in the 13th century. The cathedral’s sprawling interior is lined with several fine artworks, most notable of which are Mino da Fiesole’s marble ciborium from 1471 and Benozzo Gozzoli’s fresco of the Magis some eight years later. Also likely to catch the eye are the 12th-century marble pulpit and a nativity scene in terracotta.
Outside lies Piazza San Giovanni, which holds the cathedral’s octagonal baptistery, with its distinctive green and white marbled facade. Inside, pride of place goes to Nicolo Cercignani’s 16th century painting of the ascension of Christ. Badly damaged by a wartime attack, it has now been restored to its original splendour.
