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I-Florence by Dotflorence staff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione-Non opere derivate 2.5 Italia License.
Based on a work at www.i-florence.com
Archive for the ‘TRIPS & TRICKS’ Category
A day trip to Volterra..the city of ” volturi “
Approaching Volterra the first thing to be noticed is its profile crowned by the imposing fortress, that rises at dominion of the underlying territory. This view make us understand how great was the strategical importance of the city. The hill on which it rises, about 555 meters high, is the higher of this area, unapproachable from every side without being sighted with large advance.
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| The Etruscan gate ‘Porta all’Arco’ |
Volterra has Etruscan origins, at that time was called the rich Velhatri, and its first town-wall enclosure, built during the 5th/4th century A.C., was seven kilometers long. This was the era of its greatest territorial expansion that, with the aid of the minerals extracted from the mines of the near ‘Colline Metallifere‘ (Metalliferous Hills), brought Volterra to dominate the other ‘lucumonie’ (big cities) of the zone as Populonia and all the Tyrrhenian coast from Piombino to Luni, in the north of Tuscany. It was supposed that in 300 AC the city counted 25.000 inhabitants! In the 80 AC Volterra was, after a long siege, definitely conquered by the Roman, last big Etruscan lucumonia to capitulate. During the Longobard domination the city became a territory depending directly from the emperor, called ‘gastaldato’, but in the 10th century the history of Volterra turned into a negative trend. Hungarian troops, invoked to help the population in the war against the king of Italy Benengario I°, sacked the city, reducing it in ruins. After this episode, that left the town almost uninhabited, Volterra never reached its former Etruscan greatness.
My 3 best kept travel secrets for Prato – Italy
I have been tagged in ” My 3 best kept “arttrav ” -el secrets for Florence “ a post by Alexandra . The post is a meme started by Katie of Tripbase.com .
And now my selection for Prato , because it’s impossible to hide corners and monuments in Florence .
1) Spazzavento Hill
The Spazzavento hill , in the north of Prato , it’s a peak on the valley of Bisenzio.The mountain is bare and stony, exposed to the cold north wind. Here is found the tomb of the great Prato author Curzio Malaparte, built in 1961, on which is inscribed a sentence written by him: “…..and I want to have my tomb up there, on top of Spazzavento, so I can lift my head once in while and spit into the north wind’s cold blast ”
2)Cascine Park
The Parco delle Cascine di Tavola, in the town board in Prato, near the town Medici at Poggio a Caiano, is one of the most ambitious projects Renaissance farm, a park-farm created by Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1477.
The Parco della Cascine di Tavola prevailed over the years in Tuscany as a production center of cheese, beef and equine breeds, production of silk worms and keeper of exotic animals such as blacks deer, peacocks, lions and giraffes. Recently the local authority has, however, expressed their desire to renovate all the buildings owned by municipalities, along with nineteenth-century bridges Lorraine and refilled with water.
3)Gonfienti – Etruscan Site
In 1997 Gonfienti in area, a hamlet of Prato, were found the remains of an ancient Etruscan city,
extending over about 16 acres bound in the plain between the river Bisenzio Prato, the river and the mountains of Calvana , on the edge of the lake-river Florence-Prato-Pistoia basin (Fiorentina).
Dating from the late seventh century BC, the Etruscan town of Gonfienti (which ignores the Etruscan name) is in the center of the important communication route between the central and Etruria Valley and had planned the whole plain between Florence and Aglianico. Abandoned around the late fifth century BC, for reasons still unknown, it is recognized as one of the major Etruscan cities of the Archaic period, as witnessed by the importance of the finds so far emerged from excavations still in its infancy.
Article by Luca Tempestini