Volterra

Took a fabulous twisty motorcycle road from hotel Sovestro to Volterra, a walled fortress from 9th C bc. It had 25,000 people under the Etruscans and was an advanced city based on trading and alabaster and alum (used for dyes).
The Etruscan tombs are still being uncovered and reveal well preserved artifacts that depict life from that time. A very advanced civilization but obviously in exceptional shape as they daily climbed the thousands of stairs (I don't think we are exaggerating at all). Later the Romans came and they built an amazing coliseum here. After their downfall the medieval folks used this site as a midden to dump their garbage and it was only uncovered in the 1950's. In the museum there is an amazing collection of actual artifacts from Volterra's history. I made Anita see them all (again). We had prosciutto on focaccia and cheap but fabulous house white and a marocchino caffe in the central square. Lovely day. Tom Tom (gps) works well here and we did not have to turn around once! Right now we are looking out our patio doors by the pool and watching the lightening storm. Perfect timing.