75. Volterra

We then drove along some beautiful countryside to the home of the big bad bishop, Volterra. Volterra is situated on a very steep mountain, one of the most picturesque spots in Tuscany. The town used to be a major Etruscan center, and the Etruscans, not hating each other as much as the Tuscans, built an enormous city wall. The Romans eventually conquered the town and it fell in importance, so that the Roman town occupied only about a third of the walled in area of the Etruscan predecessor. The extensive walls were too expensive to maintain, so the Romans rewalled their smaller town. Interestingly, when it was the Romans turn to be conquered, the bishop of Volterra, while not saving the day, at least postponed the day or reckoning. While the barbarians were swarming all over Europe in the 5th century, they surrounded Volterra and tried to starve it into submission. After months of being cut off from food, the starving Volterrans were close to surrender, but the bishop came up with a bizarre idea that supposedly worked. He gathered all the remaining food rations the town had, and started throwing them over the walls to the barbarians. The barbarians fell for the ruse, and thinking the town had so much food left they could afford to throw the stuff away, moved on. The upshot of all this history is there are lots of Etruscan and Roman ruins scattered about the town, mostly around the walls and gates into town. The Roman ruin-y looking things are the Roman ruins, while the brick arch and surrounding wall are Etruscan, i.e. really old.