duffys in Italy: Volterra

The guidebooks say to visit the Tuscan hill town Volterra in winter if possible to see colors of “Pleistocene era” clay coming through. It is a barren landscape, stark, with the umbers and ochres coming through the winter grass. I particularly liked the huge red sculptured circle that looks like a Star Trek portal right before you arrive in Volterra. The art history teacher in Florence spoke about sfumato, one of the modes of Renaissance painting where the landscape “evaporates like smoke.” Certainly, in the fog Monday the landscape evaporated like smoke. Volterra was one of 12 cities of Etruria Propria and one of the most prominent. (The word Tuscany is derived from “Etruria”). It was subdued by Florence in 1361 and again in 1472 by Lorenzo the Magnificent. Currently, some parts of the Twilight series' movies have been filmed there and apparently the kids show up in the town square dressed up in red capes!

Its Palazzo dei Priori with its tower is the oldest town hall in Tuscany. I loved its baptistery (of course octogonal, eight sides for infinity). The holy water stoup is made from an Etruscan stone funerary urn. Wonderful how new religions and cultures co-opt the previous…Christianity using an Etruscan urn for a baptismal font. I also saw that the very long thin figures of bronze made by the Etruscans were very Giacometti-like….indeed now I see how Giacometti was influenced by the Etruscans particularly by the sculpture entitled “Shadow of the Evening” (Ombre della Sera), a stretched out figure of bronze found in 1870 by a farmer working the soil around Volterra. Not knowing what he found, he used it as a fire poker for years until someone recognized it was a masterpiece of Etruscan art. There were reproductions of this piece in several shops around town. Though we did not get into the Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, I would like to go back as this has the largest collection of Etruscan art. In fact, definitely going back to Volterra as I went with some new friends here and the boys and Fred will definitely want to see this place!

We visited first the Parco Archeologico, which was enclosed by fence and is the site of the Etruscan and Roman acropolis with bases of temples from 2^nd century as well as Roman cisterns and reservoirs. In the distance is the massive Fortezza, or Rocca Vecchia (old fortress). It has a semicircular tower and is still a prison. The prison has a renowned theater group who give regular performances! On the other side of the city is the Roman theater built at the end of the 1^st century and one of the best preserved in Italy, the most impressive part being the scena with two tiers of Corinthian columns partially intact as well as parts of the Roman baths and part of the cavea (which were the subterranean cells in which wild animals were confined

before the combats in the Roman arena or amphitheatre.)

What’s interesting as you drive around the area are natural precipices which are formed by the erosion of the clay. Almost all the buildings in Volterra are constructed from panchina, a kind of limestone which is the matrix of alabaster, found there in abundance. Volterra is known for craftsmen working alabaster and I was able to find my family yet again in Volterra with the old Rossi alabaster craft shop! (I am finding my family of “plural reds” (Rossi) everywhere and it is so reassuring to know how popular we once were!) There are a number of alabaster shops…with everything you can imagine made of alabaster including kitsch. There are only three colors occurring in nature…grey, clear white and a brownish color and in one of the stores they explained that it depends upon the depth underground one goes as to which color you get. Any other color is the result of dyeing (see below). Alabaster fruit is more sustainable than plastic, right?? Some stores stipulate that their alabaster is pure and not a compound of crushed alabaster and resin. I took some pictures of “old pictures” on the walls of one the workshops of craftsmen working with alabaster. We went through several shops and I found some wonderful alabaster eggs, both in natural color and dyed. Alabaster is rather soft as stone goes, and is shaped with tools that also work wood. There was everything from beautiful sculpted animals to jewelry. Clear white alabaster has a history of being used for church windows, too. I also loved the hand-crafted objects made of olive wood which has a beautiful grain pattern---I bought some spoons and ladles and, of course eggs made of both alabaster and olive wood. Also, Volterra is one of the areas alum was first mined in Italy (helped bind dyes to wool).

I am not sure but think I may have a picture of some of the “children’s windows.” Apparently in some buildings, lower, smaller windows were made for children to look out of so they wouldn’t fall out of the larger windows! Kind of like that added touch. Etruscans were a more matrifocal-oriented society…perhaps that explains why there might be “children’s windows” ...even long after the Etruscans were gone, some of their spirit carried on