Strada del Vino Colline Pisane

Volterra, surrounded by century walls, is a city of Etruscan origins and medieval shape, with an artistic handicraft unique in the world: alabaster, including numerous masterpieces are exposed in the Alabaster Ecomuseum.

Testimonies of the Etruscan and Roman period are found in the Etruscan Museum, in the acropolis and in the necropolis of the archaeological areas of Vallebuona and Enrico Fiumi Park, and in the remains of the first century BC Theatre where, in summer, there is a festival of theater, music and poetry.

The medieval town is built around the Piazza dei Priori, on which stands the Priori Palace (1208); also notable is Piazza San Giovanni, with important religious buildings.

Volterra has been chosen as setting for several novel and film, like the Twilight Saga.

The medieval atmosphere, with typical costumes, lives fully in August with the “Medieval Week – AD 1398”, the first Sunday in September, with flag-wavers who compete in the “Astiludio” tournament.

To appreciate the many local products is the festival Volterragusto, whose spring edition is in March, dedicated to the marzuolo truffle, and the autumn one on late October / early November, celebrating the fine white truffle, typical of the Volterra hills.

Etruscan Museum

The Guarnacci museum is one of the oldest public museums in Europe and was founded in 1761 when the noble abbot Mario Guarnacci gives the city its significant archaeological heritage, collected over years of research and purchases, as well as a library containing over 50,000 volumes, avoiding that wealth was lost.

The historical path begins at the ground floor, exhibiting significant pre and proto-historic monuments, on eastern, archaic and classical, and continues to the second floor showing the historical period of great economic and artistic prosperity, from the end of the IV to the I century BC.

In the room XX is a monument and symbol of the Museum and Etruria: the votive elongated lad known as “The Evening Shadow”.

His great fame, together with legends as curious as false, is essentially due to the unique shape of this votive bronze, evoking the human figure shadow on the ground by the sunset light, with peculiar similarities with contemporary artworks.

The museum is open daily, from 9 to 19 in the summer and from 10 to 16:30 in winter.

The territory was inhabited between 3000 and 2000 BC as demonstrated by the tombs discovered in the early twentieth century; the name Guardistallo appears the first time in 1144 and is derived from the Germanic words “warda” and “stall” probably meaning “place of guard”.

The village, built around the castle of the Gherardesca, in 1406 saw the passage of domination from the Republic of Pisa to Florence and then to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany; after the agrarian reform Leopoldina (eighteenth century) it established a new class of wealthy landowners as Marchionneschi who built in 1870 Villa Elena, and, a few years after, the theater, in which even today, are staged many performances, especially in the summer season.

Of particular interest are the churches of Saints Lorenzo and Agata, the church of the Madonna del Carmine, and the Monastery of Our Lady of Valserena.

Guardistallo is also the country of the thousand nativity scenes, displayed in the ancient village by the inhabitants and school students over the Christmas period.

To the Extra virgin olive oil is dedicated the festival of “Crogiantina” (roasted bread with garlic and olive oil) in the spring.

Convento di Valserena

Valserena is a monastery of contemplative nuns, belonging to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, founded in 1968 by the community of Vitorchiano in the woods and olive groves in the “Val di Cecina”.

Inside it followed the rule of St. Benedict according to the spirituality of Cîteaux: a simple life and fraternal made of work, prayer and reading, marked by the search for God in the truth of a life totally offered.

Agricultural work is a feature of the order; includes the sowing of wheat fields, the care of hectares of forest for firewood, the cultivating of an orchard and a small vineyard, pruning and fertilizing of olive trees from which annually collects enough for self consumption and sale.

Other activities are the production of creams according to old recipes updated and improved, but always kept in their authenticity enhanced by the use of natural essences drawn from fields and woods.

Among the other products of the monastery: the walnut liqueur, from a recipe tested for years; religious objects like crosses, icons, rosaries, manufactured in a small workshop.