Volterra and the Romans and Etruscans

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Monday, October 3 Volterra
Today we drove to Volterra, about 40 min. It is closer to the ocean in a very dry area. The tilled fields were large clumps of very dry clay, or parched grasses. Volterra is up really high in the hills, atop a huge cliff. When we walked part way along the wall, we met an older couple enjoying the view and he told Claude in Italian that on a clear day you can see to infinity and to the ocean. Volterrra has a few less tourists than San Gimignano. Again the medieval streets were narrow and twisty. It is a famous Etruscan town (Etruscans controlled Tuscany before the Romans a couple hundred years BC), so we went to see an Etruscan Acropolis excavation site on the perimeter of the walls, and also a Roman Theatre and roman baths. The Etruscan site was just low foundations so harder to visualize, but the roman site had much better defined walls and even some beautiful columns (Doric and Ionic I think. Most of the seats for the theatre were still there including the entrance passageways and the stage area. It was quite neat. Reminded me of North Africa.
Volterra is famous for its alabaster carvings. They have been carving alabaster here since Etruscan times. The alabaster here is very translucent. It just glows with light behind it. There are also several other colors and opacities of the stone. We were able to see them carving it in one of the studios. It is a very soft, chalky rock (that makes alot of dust), yet it polishes into such a beautiful piece.
One cool thing we saw in Volterra was there road barricades. We happened to be standing beside one (a series of 3 posts barring the road), when a police car drove up. He obviously has some sort of sensor or remote control as the center post started to flash and then it descended into the street. Very cool. Just like something out of James Bond. Once he passed, the post re-emerged again blocking the street.
In Volterra we had our first thin, wood fired pizza for lunch. It was very good. We wanted to talk to Paul and Marc today before Paul headed to school so we left Volterra so we could be at the farm fro 3 pm, to talk via Skype with the boys at 7 am. Skype is a very handy thing. Spent the rest of the day getting some laundry done, going in to pick up groceries and again, having a dip in the pool. What a tough life!

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Photos

Etruscan Acropolis excavation
Not much to see.

Comments

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