As you approach Volterra, the main Etruscan city in the area, you are faced with high walls: the Medieval section co-exists together with the  original city wall, almost unique in its resistance to the wear of time. The Porta all’Arco, the main gate into the city, soon introduces a mystery: whose are the three heads looking from the top? A hypothesis comes from the Etruscan Museum Guarnacci, among the oldest in Europe. Its rooms display all kinds of finds: there is an urn, in particular, on which the scene of a siege is depicted taking place around a monumental gate decorated with three heads, probably Porta all’Arco. It is possible that the mysterious heads are a triad of Etruscan gods protecting the city. But that is not all: at the Guarnacci museum there is one of the most precious finds, the Shadow of the Night, a particularly graceful votive statue of unknown origin.

A very similar find, almost a twin, is kept at the Archaeological Museum of San Gimignano which, in fact, has the name of Shadow of San Gimignano.

The Archaeological Parks are the ideal destinations to spend a cultural day in the open air and in nature to tell the story of the unfolding thousands of years!

A few steps away from Volterra there is the necropolis, the ancient city of  “deceased people”,  while in the historic centre there is the inviting open green space of the acropolis. Here you can freely move around the remains of the original buildings: a truly authentic journey back in time.