Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
THE VIA FRANCIGENA
Devise a holiday with a difference by walking or driving parts of the
Via Francigena
, a medieval pil-
grimage route connecting Canterbury with Rome. In Central Tuscany, the route goes past or through
towns including San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, San Quirico d'Orcia and Radicófani. Globalmap
publishes
Via Francigena in Toscana,
an excellent hiking map (1:50,000) with detailed routes and in-
formation about accommodation for pilgrims. You'll find it for sale in tourist offices and bookshops
throughout the region. You can also check
www.francigenalibrari.beniculturali.it
for route maps and
GPS coordinates.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Volterra
POP 10,675
Volterra's well-preserved medieval ramparts give the windswept town a proud, forbidding
air that author Stephanie Meyer deemed ideal for the discriminating tastes of the planet's
principal vampire coven in her wildly popular
Twilight
book series. Fortunately, the real-
ity is considerably more welcoming, as a wander through the winding cobbled streets (re-
freshingly populated by locals rather than tourists) attests.
The Etruscan settlement of Velathri was an important trading centre and senior partner
of the Dodecapolis. It is believed that as many as 25,000 people lived here in its Etruscan
heyday. Partly because of the surrounding inhospitable terrain, the city was among the last
to succumb to Rome - it was absorbed into the Roman confederation around 260 BC and
renamed Volaterrae. The bulk of the old city was built in the 12th and 13th centuries under
a fiercely independent free
comune.
The city first entered Florence's orbit in 1361, but the
people of Volterra fought hard against Medici rule - their rebellion was brought to a brutal
end when Lorenzo Il Magnifico's soldiers sacked the city in 1472. There was another re-
bellion in 1530 - again brutally crushed by the Florentines - but Volterra would never
again achieve self-government, moving from Florentine rule to that of the Grand Duchy
of Tuscany before unification in 1860.
