Tourism

Etruscan areas

The lovers of ancent civilizations will find in the lower Maremma a real mine of Etruscan remains. The first to settle on the Maremma territory were the Umbrians, but only when they were subjected to the Etruscans’ rule, Maremma gained economic importance for the entire Mediterranean. The Etruscans began to work the mines for manufacturing products to be exported, especially weapons. But even though their activities were mainly focused on the sea, no large Etruscan town was founded right on the coast, except for Populonia, the receiving port for processing the iron ore coming from the Isle of Elba

Cosa is the first town that you will see travelling from south to north along the Maremma in the province of Grosseto and its remains are visible on the rocky promontory almost perpendicular to the sea, seven kilometers south-east of Orbetello. For a long time it was considered the port of call of the powerful Vulci, a large town located in the interior of Etruria, that, located on the Tufo table land, controlled the agricultural centres of Statonia, Sovana and Pitigliano.
Vetulonia, one of the oldest and most prosperous towns of Etruria, after many uncertainties and some controversy, was finally identified with the village of Colonna di Buriano that regained its old name in 1887. Powerful trading town on the sea, it had an important political and cultural role as proven by the fact that it handed down to Rome the symbols of power, the fasces, the ivory curulis chair, the purple-edged toga and the war trumpets.

Roselle was located on a hill on the vast plain stretching from Grosseto toward the interior. Reconstructed from the Middle Ages onwards, its remains retain the untainted charme of pureness. The hill is dominated by a well-preserved wall encircling the only sign of the present times, a single farm surrounded by corn fields and pasture land. Particulary interesting. especially for experts are the ruins of houses of raw bricks, sun-dried clay loaves placed one on the other with groutdiluted clay, that recall the building methods of the East.

Sorano, site of an ancient agricultural civilization, that has preserved rocky traits in the course of time, is situated on a volcanic rock lapped downstream by the River Lente. Ancient fief of the Aldobrandeschi Counts, the village was later owned by the Counts of Sovana and Pitigliano, and finally by the Orsini from Rome. The village, encircled by walls, retains a medieval character, with arches and towers. The continuity with the past is kept alive, so much so that Etruscan tombs are used as stables and cellars.