Volterra discovery guide

Volterra has something none of the other Tuscan hill towns can offer: real depth of time. It has been a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC, its Etruscan Porta all'Arco of the 3rd–2nd centuries BC still carries traffic, and alabaster has been carved here since the 8th century BC — still the town's working trade. The Guarnacci, founded in 1761, is one of Europe's oldest public museums.

The friction is distance. Volterra sits off the main routes, in the province of Pisa rather than Siena, and reaching it means a long drive on secondary roads from almost anywhere. There is no quick detour version of this trip.

The smart way is to treat it as a destination and not a stop: stay the night, buy the 72-hour Volterra Card rather than single tickets, and avoid Tuesdays between 3 November and 9 March, when the Guarnacci is shut.

What the year does

Volterra is at 531 metres on an exposed hill in the province of Pisa, further from the main routes than its neighbours, and the museum calendar matters here more than the weather.

• January–February — cold, windy and very quiet. The Guarnacci is on winter hours, 10:00–16:00 on weekdays and closed Tuesday. The town is yours, and the alabaster workshops are working rather than selling.
• March — the pivot. Summer hours begin at the Guarnacci on 10 March, which is a real improvement: 10:00–18:30 every day, Tuesdays included.
• April–May — probably the best window. Warm, green, long light on the stone, and far fewer people than the Val d'Orcia towns get.
• June — excellent, and still manageable.
• July–August — hot and the busiest the town gets, which is still not very busy by Tuscan standards. The remoteness that is a nuisance in planning is a benefit in August.
• September–October — the other best window. Clear air, warm days, and everything open on summer hours until 2 November.
• November–December — winter hours resume on 3 November, with the Tuesday closure. Low light suits the Etruscan material and the town is quiet and cheap.

If you have one visit: late April, May, or late September — and inside the 10 March to 2 November window, so the Guarnacci is open daily and late.

Start with the oldest thing and work forward

Volterra rewards being read chronologically, because all the layers survive and they are within a few hundred metres of one another.

Begin at the Porta all'Arco, the Etruscan gate of the 3rd–2nd centuries BC at the bottom of the lane that takes its name — Via Porta all'Arco is the street, the gate is at the end of it. The lower courses are Etruscan and the gate is still in use, which is the point: this is not a monument set aside, it is a working part of the town two and a half thousand years on.

The Museo Etrusco Guarnacci

At via Don Minzoni 15, and the reason most people come. Founded in 1761 when the abbot Mario Guarnacci donated his archaeological collection and a library of over 50,000 volumes to "the public of the city of Volterra" — one of the oldest public museums in Europe, and older than the idea of a public museum.

Inside are thousands of funerary urns of the Hellenistic and Archaic periods, which in that quantity stop being objects and become a population. The two famous pieces are the bronze Ombra della sera — attenuated almost to a line — and the Urna degli Sposi, a couple portrayed with unsettling frankness.

Hours. From 10 March to 2 November, 10:00–18:30 daily. From 3 November to 9 March, 10:00–16:00 Monday and Wednesday to Friday, 10:00–18:30 Saturday and Sunday, and closed Tuesday. That winter Tuesday closure catches people out. Telephone 0588 521121; there is ground-floor access and an internal lift.

The Roman theatre, from above and for nothing

The theatre of Vallebuona is of the 1st century BC and was excavated in the 1950s. The unusual thing is that the best view is free: from the walls on the northern side you look straight down into the whole plan, which you cannot do from inside it. Go up there first, then decide whether to pay to walk in.

Alabaster, which is the living part

Carving began here in the 8th century BC and is still the traditional trade of the town. Workshops in the centre work the stone in front of you, and the Ecomuseo dell'Alabastro explains the industry. Watching someone cut alabaster is the most Volterran hour available, and it is a craft with about twenty-eight centuries of continuity behind it.

Piazza dei Priori

The Palazzo dei Priori was begun in 1208 and finished in 1257, and the square it stands on is severe rather than pretty — stone, height, and very little ornament. It housed the Guarnacci collection from 1785 until 1877.

The Fortezza Medicea, from outside only

Built in the 1470s and now a prison, which is why you cannot go in. It is worth knowing rather than attempting.

Volterra's character comes from an unusually long memory and an unusually specific trade.

Start with the memory. This has been a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC, when it was the Etruscan Velathri, and the town has never been abandoned since. Its neighbours in this group are medieval foundations or Renaissance projects; Volterra is an order of magnitude older, and it knows it. The Porta all'Arco of the 3rd–2nd centuries BC is not fenced off as a monument — it still carries traffic.

Then the trade. Alabaster carving began here in the 8th century BC and continues today as the traditional Volterran trade. That is a working craft with roughly twenty-eight centuries behind it, and it is the single most unusual fact about the town. It also explains the texture of the streets: workshops rather than boutiques, dust, the sound of cutting, and a local economy that makes something.

The Guarnacci says something about the town's self-understanding too. In 1761 the abbot Mario Guarnacci gave his archaeological collection, and a library of more than 50,000 volumes, to "the public of the city of Volterra" — a phrase worth pausing on, because the public museum as an institution barely existed then. Volterra has had one for more than two and a half centuries.

There is a harder strand as well. The Fortezza Medicea, built in the 1470s to hold the town down after Florence took it, is still a prison. A fortress built to subjugate a place and never repurposed is an unusual thing to live beside, and it is part of why Volterra feels more austere than the wine towns to the south-east.

The town is in the province of Pisa, not Siena, which matters more than it sounds: its historic orbit, its roads and its affinities run west, not toward the Val d'Orcia.

Volterra is a town of 9,366 people that is harder to reach than its neighbours, and both facts shape what responsible visiting means here. There is less crowd pressure and more opportunity to put money somewhere useful.

• Buy alabaster from a workshop, and ask who carved it. This is the one that matters. Alabaster has been worked here since the 8th century BC and is still the traditional local trade, but a continuous craft only stays continuous while people buy from the people who practise it. Workshops in the centre let you watch the work; imported resin copies are sold in the same streets. Ask whether the piece was cut here, and buy from the maker.
• Buy the Volterra Card instead of single tickets. At €23 for 72 hours it covers the Guarnacci, the Pinacoteca and civic museum, the Ecomuseo dell'Alabastro, the Palazzo dei Priori, the Roman theatre of Vallebuona and the Etruscan acropolis — six municipal sites. A single Guarnacci ticket is €10, so the card both saves money and sends it to the smaller sites that need visitors.
• Stay the night. Volterra's problem is not overload, it is that people arrive at midday and leave at four. An overnight stay is worth several day visits to the town, and the evening is when it is at its best.
• Eat away from the Palazzo dei Priori. The square is the centre and the lanes behind it are where residents eat.
• Respect the prison. The Fortezza Medicea, built in the 1470s, is a working prison. It is a striking building from outside and it is not a sight; do not photograph the gates or the perimeter, and do not try to get closer.
• Treat the archaeology as fragile. The Etruscan acropolis and the Roman theatre are excavated sites, not ruins to climb on. Stay on the paths.

What Volterra actually costs

Moderate, and better value than the Val d'Orcia towns. Volterra is harder to reach, less visited, and has a working economy based on something other than tourism, all of which keeps prices sensible.

The one decision that saves money: buy the card

The Volterra Card is valid 72 hours and covers all six of the municipality's cultural sites: the Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, the Pinacoteca and civic museum, the Ecomuseo dell'Alabastro, the Palazzo dei Priori, the archaeological area of the Roman theatre of Vallebuona and the archaeological area of the Etruscan acropolis.

• €23,00 full.
• €18,00 reduced — ages 6 to 25, university students, over-65s, and Touring Club Italiano or FAI members.
• €32,00 family — children aged 6 to 18 with one or two adults, to a maximum of five people.
• €12,00 for groups of at least ten.
• €6,00 for school parties, which does not include a guided visit.
• Free for children under 6, residents of the Comune di Volterra, students of the school district, disabled visitors and their companions, teachers accompanying school parties and group leaders, authorised tour guides, journalists, and ICOM members.

A single Guarnacci ticket is €10,00 full, €8,00 reduced (6 to 25, over 65, TCI or FAI members) and €6,00 for groups of at least ten. So if you intend to see more than two of the six sites, the card is the cheaper option, and it is valid long enough to spread them over a stay.

The hours, which decide the day

The Guarnacci opens 10:00–18:30 daily from 10 March to 2 November. From 3 November to 9 March it opens 10:00–16:00 on Monday and Wednesday to Friday, 10:00–18:30 on Saturday and Sunday, and is closed on Tuesday. A 72-hour card bought on a winter Monday loses a day to that closure, so start it on a Wednesday.

Alabaster

The range is wide and the distinction worth making is between pieces cut in Volterra and imported imitations sold alongside them. Watch the work being done in a workshop, ask whether the piece was carved there, and expect to pay more for the answer you want.

What is free

• The Porta all'Arco, the Etruscan gate of the 3rd–2nd centuries BC, which is a working town gate.
• The view down into the Roman theatre from the northern walls — better than the view from inside the site, and it costs nothing.
• Piazza dei Priori and the medieval streets.
• The Fortezza Medicea from outside, which is the only way, since it is a prison.