Attractions

One cumulative admission ticket covers all three major museums -- Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, Museo d'Arte Sacra, and Pinacoteca e Museo Civico. It costs 8€ adults, 5€ students and seniors over 60, 18€ family of four (children under 6 are admitted free). All museums' summer hours run from March 16 to October 31.

If it was feeling at all overshadowed by neighboring San Gimignano's famous and macabre torture museum, Volterra has remedied that by adding its own torture museum, Museo della Tortura, Piazza XX Settembre 5 (tel. 0588-80-501; www.museodellatortura.com). Admission is 8€. Open daily 10am-7pm (in winter Mon-Fri).

Besides the Museo della Tortura, Volterra has managed to out-spook every town this side of Dracula's castle. First, it served as the backdrop to scenes in Stephenie Meyer's 2009 vampire flick New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. Additionally, since June 2009, there has been a monthly dinner in the Fortezza's high-security prison, with patrons being served by the inmates themselves -- including prisoners convicted of murder!

In Search of Alabaster

Volterrans have been working the watery, translucent calcium sulfate stone found around their mountain for almost 3,000 years. The Etruscans turned the alabaster into the tiny sarcophagi that fill the Guarnacci museum; the industry revived in the late 19th century, mainly to crank out lampshades for the exploding market in electric lights. The working of alabaster is taken very seriously in town, and you can major in it at the local art school. Among the producers are the roadside workshops outside town that use machines and trained hacks to churn out chess sets, life-size reproductions of famous Italian sculptures, and such follies as alabaster kitchen sinks; and then there are the craftsmen in town who put a great deal of skill and pride into their bowls and statuettes.

The comune has put Plexiglas plaques at the workshops of some of the most traditional artisans, the ones who still handwork every stage. Via di Sotto has a good run of them, including the workshop of Lido Baroncini at no. 7; he welcomes visitors to peek in his window and watch him work. Renzo Gazzanelli and Roberto Guerrieri's workshop is at Via del Mandorlo 42, and the larger Rossi Alabastri (tel. 0588-86-133) outfit works out of a shop at the end of the block, where the street turns for the Roman theater panoramic walk.

There's a good figure-carving workshop based at Via Gramsci 60, and Via Porta all'Arco has several fine shops, including the shop of the town's top artiste, Paolo Sabatini, at no. 45 (tel. 0588-87-594). For some of the better craft objects, the Società Cooperativa Artieri Alabastro, Piazza dei Priori 4-5 (tel. 0588-87-590), has since 1895 been a cooperative showroom and sales outlet for artisans who don't have big enough operations to open their own shops.