Volterra really should be mentioned alongside
Florence,
Siena,
Lucca,
San Gimignano and
Pisa, because of its beautiful medieval and Renaissance heritage. This delightful town, with its winding network of streets and walkways, lies high in the hills providing magnificent views of the surrounding countryside. While Volterra is a popular destination for tourists, here you won’t find the crowds so often present in the aforementioned Tuscan cities and towns and by evening most of the day-trippers have left. Within Volterra’s city walls you will only find three hotels. There are, however, 25 restaurants and just as many cafés, leaving you spoilt for choice.
While there is ample evidence from the Etruscan period in Volterra, the town is not of Etruscan origin and was in fact founded earlier during the Villa Nova period (900-700 BC). For several hundred years during the Etruscan period, Volterra flourished until it became part of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century BC. The town’s many ruins are a sure testament to its Roman existence. The town continued to flourish even during the darkest medieval depopulation. The reason? Its marvelous location and the wealth of all kinds of precious stones and minerals in the surrounding area.
By the 5th century, Volterra was a cathedral city. By the year 1000 the bishop’s power had grown steadily so that the position became hereditary under the Pannocchieschi family in the years 1150 to1239. It was at this point that Volterra became a municipality, and throughout the following decades the city often switched sides in the ongoing battle between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs up to the middle of the 14th century.
The surrounding lands, rich in minerals, made Volterra an attractive possession for the Florentines. In 1360 Volterra fell to Florentine rule. An attempted rebellion in 1472 was brutally quelled by the famous Lorenzo il Magnifico de' Medici and the Duke of
Urbino. The reason for the prompt and harsh action was Volterra’s large alum mines, which were crucial to
Florence’s dye industry.
