Tuscania

Tuscania has 8,145 inhabitants on seven tuff promontories, between the river Marta and the Fosso Capecchio, in a position that commands the valley: from here, since prehistory, one passed from Lake Bolsena to the sea. Until 1911 the town was called Toscanella. The Latin name, Tuscana, means simply the city of the Tusci, which was the Roman way of saying Etruscans; a legend, however, traces it to Ascanius, son of Aeneas, who is said to have found twelve puppies here.

The Etruscan city stood on the hill of San Pietro, today outside the walls, and around it twelve rock-cut necropolises remain. Under Rome it prospered: aqueducts and baths were built, and the local workshops produced sarcophagi in terracotta and in nenfro, the dark stone of these valleys. Around 225 before Christ the via Clodia passed through. In the fifth century Tuscania became one of the first bishoprics in Italy, and remained so until the seventeenth century; in 1222 Francis of Assisi stayed here, and on 2 March 1240 Frederick II entered the city.