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Volterra is an enormously sweet town, close enough to Tuscany to be able to see some of the marvels of world art, and far enough from anywhere else to make a perfect escape.  This is one of the splendid Italian cities that tourists dream of, with cathedrals, ancient theatres, fortresses and museums, and is a fantastic place to get away from the mundane world of mundane details.  It is hard not to feel at ease here, where the flow of life seems to coincide perfectly with your own pace.  There is gorgeous scenery, and, as is always true in Italy, many amazing places to find a delicious meal.

With Volterra hotels there is always a magnificent hospitality, with sumptuous decor that speaks to an earlier time.  It has an absolutely fascinating history, and is one of the places where you can still have a sense of the Etruscan civilization that once lived here.  The Etruscans were as interesting as they were mysterious.  There is some information about who they were, but so much of their story is lost in prehistory.  They were very likely related to the Villanovans, and were also an indigenous tribe to the area.

Their complex funerary practices demonstrated a profound connection with death, and the world after death.  This, in part, might explain why Volterra has entered pop culture as a main location for the Twilight series.  They were a polytheistic culture, and very likely animists, who saw connections between the spirit world and the waking world in people, places, and objects.  Some archeological finds suggest practices that rival the Egyptians in providing access to a very complex journey for the recently dead, where the rooms would be furnished with objects that mirror the spirit world and the world of the living.  One might not find evidence of vampires here, but there is certainly enough to suggest some spectacular stories of the cultures that gave birth to our own.