Volterra a town for holidays in Tuscany

Volterra

While you relax in the panoramic swimming pool of the residence Belmonte, you cannot help admiring in the distance the fortress of Volterra. If you are lovers of art and history, you can't help being tempted by the desire to visit this wonderful medieval city of Tuscany. Volterra can be reached from the Belmonte residence with only twenty minutes by car, covering a characteristic hill road that will lead you to the foot of the town. In the same way you can reach San Gimignano, that interrupts with its high towers, a horizon made of gently rolling hills set against a frame of lands worked for centuries that keep an historical city unique in the world.

Towards Volterra....

You need only travel about twenty kilometres along a winding, but sweet road among the Tuscan hills, to see that little by little, becoming more and more imposing towards us, an Etruscan, Lombard city, dominated by the Romans, located between the Municipalities of Siena and Florence, theatre of battles, crib of artists and merchants: all this is Volterra.

Volterra was an excellent stronghold cleverly constructed on the highest hill so as to allow faster sightings of the enemy.

The walls from 1200, still perfectly intact, protect it.

Before reaching the entrance of one of the doors of the city, it is worth visiting the very beautiful Roman amphitheatre of Volterra which is still used for the summer theatre festival of the cities. Entering through one of the access doors, the atmosphere that surrounds us is one of a typical medieval city. The roads lead us to the famous Piazza dei Priori the ancient part of the little town. In this majestic square we can admire the crenellated Palace of the Priori that it is said served as model for the Old Palace of Florence. Within this, you can visit the town council hall frescoed with a great Annunciation (1383 D.C.) attributed to Jacopo da Cione.

Also the Palazzo Pretorio that stands out just opposite is very beautiful, surmounted by the tower of the Porcellino, that takes its name from the stone wild boar in stone that juts out from the tower, a delightful animal that populates the lands and forests of Volterra and is deliciously cooked in the tasty Tuscan recipes!
Remarkable also the Episcopal Palace where you can find a beautiful museum of sacred art with works of Della Robbia, Pollaiolo, Giambologna. Moving from the profane centre of civic power, the sacred cathedral of Volterra that is the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, can be visited that houses at its inside splendid sixteenth century works of Benozzo Gozzzoli and Fra Bartolomeo.
The niches at the side of the entrance of the cave house the statues of Bacchus and Ceres by Baccio Bandinelli (1552-1556). In the corners there were, before their substitution with concrete limestone, which took place in 1924, the Prisons of Michelangelo. In the early years of the XVII century, during the times of the Grand Duchy of Cosimo I (1609-1621), the garden was widened, under the supervision of Gherardo Mechini and Giulio Parigi, besides the city walls erected during the war against Siena.

Visit also the nearby Pinacoteca comunale (Municipal Art gallery) not far from the Piazza dei Priori where you will be able to lose yourselves, admiring the paintings and sculptures of the greatest Sienese and Florentine masters. The Deposition of the Cross painted in 1521 by Rosso Fiorentino is very beautiful, considered one of the masterpieces of the mannerism. Proceeding southwards of the Piazza dei Priori, you reach a wonderful area of lawns and green that brings us back to the light after the walks through the most austere and dark medieval alleys. It deals with a very beautiful park, known also as the archaeological park since there are the remains of a roman swimming pool. Here the Rocca was made built by Lorenzo dei Medici. The male with the circular bastions stands out, a very beautiful work of military architecture today used as jail for prisoners with life term sentences.

In your walks in the streets of Volterra always raise your eyes when you go through the historical doors of the city: Porta di Docciola, Porta Marcoli, Porta a Selci and Porta Fiorentina, Porta Etrusca are works of art that have seen passed beneath them the history of this wonderful little town. From the remains of the Etruscan Porta Diana, for example, it is possible to proceed through a number of paths that lead to the Etruscan Necropolis where it is possible to find unmarked underground graves. In order to completely appreciate the Etruscan heritage of Volterra, the Etruscan Museum Guarnacci should be visited which houses about six hundred urns all in alabaster, tuff and terracotta, where usual activities or envoys to the deceased are represented. Among these the Urna degli Sposi (Urn of the Spouses) is very famous.

Volterra is also the land of the very renowned handicraft of alabaster that is worked by local masters to realize wonderful handiworks that you will find exhibited in the shops of the centre. And finally before leaving Volterra, it is worth viewing it from above its Cliffs, the famous precipices, result of the erosion from which a breathtaking panorama can be enjoyed.

The return to Belmonte

The sunset behind us leads us on the house road that passing among the yellow hills of grain and sunflowers brings us back to our residence. In a single day we have gone back in time to the Middle Ages, to the time of knights, gentlemen and battles among municipalities. We have breathed the history and seen first-hand the ancient civilizations of Tuscany. Belmonte welcomes us in its corner of green paradise, hidden between San Gimignano and Volterra and provides us with the relaxation of a dip in the swimming pool while the sun colours the horizon red behind the hills.
Tomorrow will be another day to discover other suburbs, villages and historical cities of this extremely charming Tuscan land.