Velathri was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan dodecapolis, and Volterra never stopped being one: the Porta all'Arco gate keeps its worn Etruscan stone heads, while the Guarnacci museum — among Europe's oldest public museums, founded in 1761 — holds the "Evening Shadow", the elongated bronze that looks like a Giacometti two thousand years early, plus hundreds of alabaster urns.
Alabaster is still the family trade: workshops turn it into translucency. The Roman theatre, the Medici fortress and the crumbling Balze cliffs complete a town balanced between sky and clay hills, miraculously still real.
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
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Next up: Saint Justus, the bishop-patron who, according to legend, saved Volterra from Totila, Saturday 5 June
Nearest airport: Pisa Galilei, 50 km away
Volterra is part of 🏘️ Villages
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📅 Every year, on 5 June
Volterra celebrates Saints Justus and Clement on 5 June, the date of Bishop Justus's death in 556; tradition credits him with the miracle of saving the town from the siege of the Gothic king Totila, and both saints are honoured in the town's old abbey.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Volterra, but an easy day trip away.
