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Hidden gemHub · 1 stop8th c. BC – 7th c. ADTicketed

Volaterrae – Volterra

Velathri, Vlathri, Οὐολατέρραι

city · Tuscany, Italy

What it is
Volterra is a walled hilltop town in Tuscany that was the Etruscan city of Velathri and the Roman Volaterrae.
What you’ll see
The Roman remains sit in and around a town that also keeps substantial Etruscan and medieval buildings (en.wikipedia), and all of them lie within about 650 m of the main square.
Worth the trip?
Yes, if you are anywhere in central Tuscany. The theatre is counted among the best-preserved Roman theatres in Italy (en.wikipedia).
Getting there & cost
The nearest railway station, Volterra Saline–Pomarance, is not in the town but in the frazione of Saline di Volterra, at the end of the line from Cecina (it.wikipedia). A bus station is mapped about 100 m from the centre (OpenStreetMap).Ticketed · The town sells a Volterra Card for its archaeological areas, €23 (reduced €18, family €32, free under 6) · checked 20 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
The Roman theatre from the slope above it, a grassy half-circle of seating, the standing fragment of the stage front and the excavated ground behind it, with a road, parked cars and houses at the edge of the town and hills on the horizon.
The Roman theatre at Vallebuona, just outside the medieval walls; it has its own page. · Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A city gate of large, roughly squared stone blocks, its round arch framed by three weathered carved heads, one at the top and one at each springing, set in a tall wall with houses behind and a plaque beside it.
Porta all'Arco, the Etruscan gate on the south side of the town. · Photo: Sailko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A dim underground chamber with a vaulted ceiling carried on square masonry piers, lit by a single lamp.
Inside the Roman cistern. · Photo: Diego Baglieri · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The stops

1 place to see, the best preserved and best known first.

See the stop on the mapWhere each one is, so you can plan your own way round.Open the map →
  1. A Roman theatre seen from above, its curved tiers of stone seats set into a grassy hillside, with a tall two-storey fragment of the columned stage front standing beyond them and low walls and column stumps spread over the level ground behind.

    Photo: Jean-Christophe BENOIST · CC BY 2.5 · Commons

    theatre · Tuscany

    Roman Theatre of Volterra

    The seating still curves round the slope: two tiers, of nine and ten rows, divided by a narrow walkway.

    Ticketed

Volterra is a walled hilltop town in Tuscany that was the Etruscan city of Velathri and the Roman Volaterrae. Its Roman set piece is a theatre of the age of Augustus, just outside the medieval walls, which has its own page; the town adds an Etruscan gate, the Etruscan acropolis with a Roman cistern, and an amphitheatre still being excavated (en.wikipedia; the Comune di Volterra).

What is there today

The Roman remains sit in and around a town that also keeps substantial Etruscan and medieval buildings (en.wikipedia), and all of them lie within about 650 m of the main square.

  • The Roman theatre and baths at Vallebuona, just outside Porta Fiorentina, are the best of Roman Volterra: seating set into the hillside, part of the two-storey stage front standing again, and later baths behind it. Hours, tickets and the full description are on the Roman Theatre of Volterra page.
  • Porta all’Arco. The southern gate of the Etruscan town, of the 4th–3rd century BC, with three carved stone heads on its arch. It is Etruscan rather than Roman work, and was less altered after the Roman conquest than comparable gates elsewhere (it.wikipedia).
  • The Etruscan acropolis and the Roman cistern, which en.wikipedia lists as one sight and dates to the 8th and the 1st century BC respectively. The acropolis, in the Parco Archeologico Enrico Fiumi, shows the stone footings of two Etruscan temples (the Comune).
  • The amphitheatre, found by chance in 2015 near Porta Diana and still being excavated (it.wikipedia). It had three tiers of seating, and published figures put it at roughly 82–90 m by 64–70 m (the Comune; Pleiades). The Comune lists it as not currently open to visitors, though its page also mentions booked guided tours of the dig; part of the oval can be seen from above from the roads by Porta Diana and the cemetery (the Comune).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, if you are anywhere in central Tuscany. The theatre is counted among the best-preserved Roman theatres in Italy (en.wikipedia). Combine it with Porta all’Arco and the acropolis and you have a half-day; the Etruscan museum and the medieval centre fill the rest of a day.

Two things to know. The Roman part of Volterra is compact: one ticketed theatre, an Etruscan gate, a cistern and a dig site, not a Roman city to walk through. And between 3 November and 9 March the archaeological areas open only by booking, so a winter visit needs planning.

Getting there

The nearest railway station, Volterra Saline–Pomarance, is not in the town but in the frazione of Saline di Volterra, at the end of the line from Cecina (it.wikipedia). A bus station is mapped about 100 m from the centre (OpenStreetMap). By road, the SS68 links Volterra west to the coast and the SS1 Aurelia (it.wikipedia). There is paid parking in the underground La Dogana car park near the main square (OpenStreetMap); the theatre’s page names the car park at its entrance.

The Etruscan acropolis keeps the same seasonal hours as the theatre, set out on the theatre’s page: open daily from 10 March to 2 November, and only by booking from 3 November to 9 March. With the archaeological areas’ tariff the town also lists a Volterra Card, €23 (reduced €18, family €32, free under 6); its page does not say which other sites the card covers (the Comune di Volterra, read 20 October 2026; check before travelling).

Visiting details

Opening hours
The Etruscan acropolis keeps the same seasonal hours as the Roman theatre (on the theatre's page): open daily from 10 March to 2 November, closed from 3 November to 9 March except by booking.
Tickets
The town sells a Volterra Card for its archaeological areas, €23 (reduced €18, family €32, free under 6). Single tickets are on the Roman theatre's page.
Parking
Underground La Dogana car park, about 120 m from the main square (OSM way/336681257). The car park for the theatre is on its page.

Before you go

  • The Roman amphitheatre found in 2015 is an active excavation; the town lists it as not currently open to visitors.
  • The archaeological areas are closed from 3 November to 9 March unless booked in advance.

Hours and prices checked 20 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Volterra was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan League (en.wikipedia). An Etruscan army was defeated by the Romans near the town in 298 BC, and from the end of the 3rd century BC Volterra seems to have been a federate ally of Rome; in 205 BC it supplied grain and ship timbers for Scipio’s fleet (it.wikipedia). Its people received Roman citizenship in 90 BC, but the town then sided with Marius and was besieged by Sulla himself from 82 to 80 BC. After the Social War it became a municipium, and by the age of the triumvirs or of Augustus at the latest a colonia (it.wikipedia).

Under Augustus the wealthy Caecina family gave the town its theatre, whose story, from its dedication to its excavation in the 1950s, is on the theatre’s page (en.wikipedia). The poet Persius (Aulus Persius Flaccus) was born in Volterra in AD 34 (en.wikipedia; it.wikipedia). The town kept its status as a colonia, had a bishop by the later 5th century and was still a city to the historian Agathias in the mid-6th, while archaeology shows its public buildings falling apart in the 5th and 6th (it.wikipedia).

The amphitheatre appeared in July 2015, when work on a stream bank exposed a curved line of masonry; no ancient or later writer had recorded it, which is why it was made known as “l’anfiteatro che non c’era”, the amphitheatre that wasn’t there (it.wikipedia).

Nearby

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 403292CC BY
Wikidata — Volterra (Q103305, the modern town)licence not recorded
Wikipedia (en) — VolterraCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — VolterraCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Roman Theatre at VolterraCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Teatro romano di VolterraCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Porta all'Arco (Volterra)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Anfiteatro romano di VolterraCC BY-SA 4.0
Pleiades — Porta all'Arcolicence not recorded
Pleiades — Roman theatre of Volaterraelicence not recorded
Pleiades — Roman amphitheatre of Volterralicence not recorded
Comune di Volterra — Aree archeologiche (hours and admission, the operator)licence not recorded
Comune di Volterra — L'Anfiteatro Romano di Volterralicence not recorded